"So, who are these freelancers anyway?"
Having arrived at their destination, Jason's temporary digs, he and his partner strode away from their unmarked car parked across from one of many warehouses, towards the building once a factory. When Carlos could keep Kiera talking about time travel, it was a way of helping her to refocus. Of late, it seemed to him that her powers of concentration pertaining to the here and now needed tweaking. They were diminishing, noticeably. She was still with the police department, but far removed from it spiritually, in a manner of speaking.
Now, with Gardiner's death confirmed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Kiera was the only one suspected of causing it. Outraged, Carlos refused to believe that for an instant, but now his career and freedom were in jeopardy. He stood to be kicked off the force and thrown into prison to serve hard, long time. Loyalty was not his sole reason for standing with her. His feelings argued that he could do nothing less than back her, regardless of what his backing might cost him.
Kiera was so worth it, having become so much to him.
She and Carlos, as one, were about to take down these mysterious, ruthless raiders dead set on grabbing the time machine. They would not think twice about killing Alec, Jason and Emily to accomplish this. How many countless others had they already murdered, Gardiner, himself, being one?
Time felt draggy, as the team of two counted off the minutes before they struck.
So, why had he asked this same question again, Kiera thought as she mentally prepared herself to do battle with these 'privateers,' who time traveled for reasons largely unclear, but wholly incompatible with her desires. She had come to 2013 wanting to thwart Liber8, stop them before they could manage the inkling of a start.
Now, all she wanted to do was to get home, where her loved ones waited for her. Homeward bound, she so wished she were. Instead, she was here, about to lay her life on the line again so getting home was not lost to her. According to Escher, the Freelancers, being the liability that they inherently were, had to be neutralized. These unsavory souls were after power, absolute control to further their arcane agenda. Manipulation was their modus operandi, their carnage hallmark. Time governed by the Freelancers must not happen, Escher kept warning, and would continue to warn until his agenda was realized.
The last thing Carlos thought before Kiera and he were about to burst into Jason's loft was that he had tried reconciling himself to her wanting to return to her life, her family, her time. He wrestled with himself, an ongoing contention. It was quite the galling paradox. How he felt about her had made him lose perspective. Her happiness was all he thought about, which meant he must let her go. Though he'd conquer the huge part of him that hated the thought of losing her, there would always be that acute sense of his having lost someone grand, a kindred spirit, a giant whom he had grown to respect, honor, love.
He would do it, though, force himself to accept that she was gone, never forget her, but get over such perplexing feelings and move on, had to for the sake of his flimsy sanity.
"Ready?" Kiera prompted, standing so close to Carlos, she felt his excitement, the kind that came from barging into a situation where you might very well die, happened each time they walked the walk.
The world shrank to the size of it being only they, hell-bent on saving the future.
With a nod he measuredly replied, "As I'll ever be. No matter how this turns out, Kiera, I'll always have your back. Your cause is my cause."
A split second before they launched their attack, Kiera thought back to the first time she'd come to his home to live and he'd said, "Mi casa es su casa…"
"If we save the time travel device…"
Carlos gave her a stern look and slyly corrected, "Not if, when."
Returning the nod, looking deeply into his dark, brooding eyes, which held so many secrets, some of which he had shared with her, Kiera admired his spirit, always had. What a CPS Protector he would make, she couldn't help but think, that thought lingering in her mind. I want to…I should…I will. Before we do this, I must put it to him. Or, forever hold my peace.
She gripped her amazing tech weapon more firmly.
He's the best…
She had reached that conclusion from the way they worked together, time after time, these many arduous months. They complemented each other, like hand in glove. A partner she could count on, no matter what, this was the man who stood beside her, primed to follow her anywhere she led. Why should she lose him?
Why, indeed?
"Carlos?"
"Yes, Kiera?" He read expectation in her voice, made him tingle even more than he already was, a common occurrence before going to war.
Their weapons at the ready, their extraordinary grit and will to survive adrenaline-fed, the law enforcers locked eyes.
"Come with me," she implored, every emotion she had ever felt, would ever feel for him, flowed from her to his heart because she willed it.
"We go in together, as always," Carlos insisted, drawing closer to her.
"I need you." Though deadpan, her delivery couldn't have been more implicit. Cocked like a pistol, she was ready to fire, a blaze of fury, magnificent to behold.
"You've got me," he reiterated, setting the pace as they edged closer to Jason's loft's point of ingress, a pock-marked metal door, its rust stronger than it actually was.
From inside the room, a locus of disarray and confusion, angry voices shouted that the time device must be surrendered.
"Into the future," Kiera succinctly adjured, knowing that if she didn't ask now, there might not be another chance, considering the foe they faced and the odds perhaps not being in their favor this day. "Be with me there. Fighting Liber-Eight and any and all whose purpose it is, is to destroy decent society."
Her bombshell rocked his sensibilities, made him giddy and sober all at once. Euphoria meshed with the time-honored work ethic of 'protect and serve.' For a moment, he was in flux, then pulled himself together. Saving those inside who needed saving came first. They would have their heart-to-heart. Neither Kiera nor he were going to die today. He'll fight like a madman to ensure that.
"We'll talk, later. Now, we kick some Freelancers ass. Set?"
Resolutely, giving him a shove for togetherness' sake, and kicking in the door, Kiera erupted, "Go!"