A/n Greetings! So I'm having some fun with the way this story is turning out. I was thinking maybe things were getting a bit too far-fetched, but then I thought, hey, it's the warehouse, nothing is impossible, right? lol
To my darling beta, iwantafarnsworth, thank you for everything. You're awesome :)
Hope you all enjoy!
20:54, Mumbai, India
"Less than four hours again, Claudia. How is the power holding up?" Helena asked over the girl's shoulder. "So far so good HG, no hitches in the system yet," she responded, legs propped on the small desk. "Good, keep it that way," the inventor replied, nodding before walking back to the time machine.
Myka was there, looking over as the doctor gently stroked the unconscious woman's hair. She stopped in her tracks as she heard the inflections of an Indian accent in Myka's voice as she address the young doctor. "Aki, when this is all over, is there any possibility that we could give things another chance? This whole situation has put a lot of things into perspective for me. I really want to be with you, I'm still in love with you, Aki….that much has never changed," she added the last part in a small voice.
Dr. Samar raised her hand to stop the woman. Granted the woman was gorgeous, somewhat Greek in her appearance, with those piercing green eyes and sharp facial features, but this woman wasn't her Vidya, with kind brown eyes, and soft Indian curves. She wouldn't have this conversation until she could truly look into those chocolate brown eyes, those eyes that she had spent endless nights staring into. So she stopped the woman.
"Look, I get it that you had some kind of epiphany or whatever, but now is not the time okay? I...I can't do this right now." She dismissed the stranger and turned back to her comatose lover, bending down to kiss her lips lightly. "Come back to me, meri jaan, please," she whispered.
Myka's green eyes looked away from the pair before her and became ensnared by fiery brown orbs. "Helena.." She muttered.
The time traveler glared at her, then paused to take a deep breath and compose herself before addressing her lover's form.
"Everything seems to be in order with the power. Claudia has it under control."
"Good," the actress responded gratefully, "look," she continued, "about just now, I'm really sorry. I keep forgetting that I'm not 'me' in this body."
Helena nodded at her, "it's...it's fine. Just don't let it go any further, ok?" She warned.
The sound of feet pounding on the ground drew their attention to the only door to the room. Pete burst through the door first, followed by a very out of breath Karan.
"HG, they're….shutting us…..down…...Manually!…..They're going to cut us off!" Pete blurted out, gasping for breath between the words. Karan was still bent over at his side, panting for air.
"Who, Pete? And what do you mean by shut us down?" Helena questioned.
"The power company….they...they couldn't access the building remotely….so they sent an officer here...to manually cut the power!" he rasped out.
"Bloody wankers! Shite!" Helena cursed, wracking her brain for a solution.
"Claudia," she turned towards the redhead.
The young woman put her hands up defensively, knowing what Helena was going to ask her. "I only have control of their boards, HG. If they physically turn off the power, the only thing we can do to stop them is….beg!"
"Fuck!" Helena cursed again before turning to the director, "have you tried reasoning with them, Karan?"
"I gave it my best shot, but they had strict instructions to determine what was draining the power to the city and shut it off," he responded.
"Wait, they have to determine the source? That means what? They're coming here?" She asked, annoyed that they had neglected to mention this detail.
As if on some cruel cue, they heard the sound of a door being broken down somewhere in the building.
"Tesla! Tesla! TESLA!" Pete blurted out at his two colleagues. "We can tesla them!" He added.
Helena sighed, "that won't hold them off forever, they'll just send more men to fix the problem," she countered.
"Shit," Pete muttered dejectedly, they were running out of ideas.
"Tesla!" Claudia shouted.
"No Claudia, that's only a temporary solution, we can't very well tesla everyone who barges through that door," Helena argued.
"No HG! The teslas! We have four right? Myk - Vidya, you have Myka's?" She turned to the woman, who nodded in affirmation. "Good, four of the customized self-charging teslas. All we need to do is rewire the four to create a circuit with the time machine, amp them up to max, and we'll have a good enough amount of power to supplement what we're getting from the power company. That way, we won't have to suck all the power from the city; just some," the young genius beamed.
"Aces Claudia! That's bloody brilliant!" Helena regarded proudly, collecting the teslas from the others and hurrying towards the machine where Claudia was already squatted and starting to dismantle her own tesla. As she disassembled her own, Helena instructed the two men, "Karan, Pete, I need you both to go out there and buy us some time. Tell them there's no need to cut our power, that we'll turn it off ourselves. As soon as we set up the circuits, we'll switch back their boards. Pete, I'll call as soon as we're ready."
Both men nodded and hurried out the door.
"What can we do?" the doctor and Vidya asked in unison to the tech pair.
Claudia remained bent over the electric guns while Helena looked up to address them, "I need you two to stand guard. Should the boys be unsuccessful in keeping anyone out, you two will need to keep them away from the machine until Claudia and I can reroute the power. Do you think you'll be able to handle that?" Both women shook their heads in unison, their courageous disposition keeping their fears at bay. "Good, then get into position, be ready for a fight," Helena instructed, turning back to the now completely dismantled stunning devices on the floor.
Dr. Samar approached Myka's tall form, seeing the worry and concern in the woman's forest green eyes. "Vids, you alright?" She asked tentatively. Green eyes turned to gaze into her brown before a soft voice, its sound still unfamiliar to hear ears, responded meekly, "I don't know Aki. I'm scared. It's just a couple of hours left, but so much can happen in that time. What if I never make it back to my body? What if I remain lost in nothingness for eternity? What if…" The press of soft warm lips against her own quelled her ranting, a soft whimper escaping her as she fell into an embrace she had lived without for too long. Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around the smaller woman's waist as she felt strong fingers curl around the back of her neck, pulling her head down as the kiss deepened. Their tongues danced, falling into patterns they had traced along the planes of each other's mouth a long time ago.
"What the freaking frak?!" Claudia's loud outburst tore them apart, causing them to jump away from each other, guilt washing over both their faces.
Helena was looking at them now, a pained and somewhat menacing expression in her eyes. She closed her eyes and steeled herself, hiding away her inner turmoil, before turning back to Claudia, "Let's just get this working as fast as we can, alright Claudia?" The redhead regarded her with shock and awe, surprised at the control that this previously maniacal woman was currently displaying, "ay ay, captain," she saluted her mentor before returning to their task at hand.