div id="chapter-1" class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a;"
div class="chapter preface group" style="border-width: 1px 0px 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.5em 3em; padding: 0.643em 0.643em 0px; float: none; border-style: solid initial initial initial;"
h3 class="title" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.286em; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0.5375em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1; background: 0px 0px; text-align: center;"a style="color: #111111; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 19.4443px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" href=" /works/50292208/chapters/127047664"Part 1/a/h3
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div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1041.47px; float: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;" role="article"
h3 id="work" class="landmark heading" style="border-width: 0px 0px 0.25em; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: 500; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.125em; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; height: 0px; clear: both; color: transparent; border-color: initial initial #333333 initial; border-style: initial initial double initial;"Chapter Text/h3
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz was beside herself. Here she was, in her t-shirt and underwear, having a conversation with her mark, Asmar Amrohi. He was here, right in front of her. And she knew, unless something changed drastically, that she couldn't kill him. She was too in love with Aaliyah to do that to her. She took the spoon from him to try the gelato. It was delicious. Should she tell him what an asshole Ehsan was so he would force him to treat Aaliyah better? He seemed the doting father. But was it all just an act?/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"That is when she heard the loud voice coming her way. She looked at the door to see Ehsan charging in, yelling./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Marine! You're a United States fucking marine!" Ehsan yelled./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"She hit him in face with a palm strike. He fell sideways onto the counter hard and was dazed. Cruz pulled a knife from the knife block and stabbed him in the neck. Honestly, she was happy to kill him. He was a bastard who planned to rape and treat Aaliyah horribly. Asmar, realizing who and what she was, also attacked, hitting her with a frying pan. Her instincts kicked in before she could shut them off. In a matter of seconds, he, too, was lying on the ground, throat cut along with many stabs to his vital organs. He was dead. She was covered in their blood. She pinched the beacon in her necklace, setting it off./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Then she heard a whimper from the stairs. She looked up to see Aaliyah frozen in terror. Scared of her. That sent a painful stabbing pain through her heart. In less than a second, she made a decision she knew she would get in trouble for. Cruz grabbed Aaliyah's wrist and tugged. She didn't say anything, just pulled, and Aaliyah, thank God, did not fight. She began trailing behind Cruz and Cruz ran pulling Aaliyah. When they burst through the doors to the large patio, she whisper-yelled, "Run!" and pushed Aaliyah in front of her. Aaliyah ran. Cruz ran behind her, pushing her to change their direction often to create a zig-zag pattern. She hoped they could make it a ways before anyone figured out what had happened. Then she felt it. Small pieces of the stone around her exploded and pelted painful little pieces at them. They were being shot at. "Keep running!" She yelled again. "No matter what, do not stop! Run for the water."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz noted in the back of her head that they were not being shot at as much as she would expect. The guards were probably not sure why they were shooting yet, and noted Aaliyah and didn't want to actually hurt her. All the better in Cruz's mind. They just might live through this. They came to the first wall to jump down. Aaliyah slowed. "Jump!" In a time like this, where Aaliyah was freaking out, Cruz knew short directives were best. Do not let her think, Cruz thought to herself./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah jumped and Cruz jumped after her. They jumped down the second and third walls as well. Cruz looked ahead for cover and saw some. She pointed, "Run there!" Aaliyah ran. Cruz made them zig-zag. They ducked for cover behind a stone statue. The gunfire was increasing the closer to the water they ran. Cruz eyed another statue and pointed. "There!" She gave Aaliyah another shove and ran behind her to cover her. The ducked behind the second statue. The gunfire increased exponentially at this point. The guards no longer cared that Aaliyah was with her. They were going for the kill now. Then she heard the quieter zip-zip of the guns from her team. The guards were being shot down. Her team was here./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Joe made it to them first, "I've got them!" she yelled to the team. And then to the women, "Get up!" She directed them to the water while the rest of the team covered them. "Swim to it!" They both dove in and swam as hard as they could to the boat. They were on deck when Joe climbed up. "What the fuck, Cruz? This was not part of the mission. This was span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"not/span your call." Joe took Aaliyah by the arm and led her below deck. Joe showed her to a room, mentioning she could dry off and find dry clothes but that she needed to stay out of sight. Aaliyah nodded her understanding, but said nothing. Joe locked her in as she left and went back on deck. Meade thundered up to Cruz./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Did you hit the target?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I hit the target."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""The Ace of Spades is dead?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""The Ace of Spades is dead."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Meade turned and spoke into the phone. "We have joy. I repeat, we have joy." Meade then turned on Cruz. "What the fuck is Aaliyah Amrohi doing on this boat? I don't remember that as being part of the mission."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""No Ma'am. She came upon me just after I killed her father and fiancé in the kitchen. I couldn't leave her there to spread word of what happened."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I understand that we do not like to leave witnesses behind, but we don't bring them with us. We eliminate them."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I made a decision. I had no way to contact anyone to clear it. She knows things. She knows more than she realizes and what she knows could be very useful in future missions."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I understand that you are new to this line of work within the marines. I also realize you don't have the training you probably should for the job. But I can assure you this... span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"choice.../span has likely ended your career as a marine." With that she spun on her heal and went back into the cabin./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz stood there, silver blanket around her, in her wet shirt and underwear. She wasn't sure what to do at this point. She had saved Aaliyah, but would Aaliyah ever forgive her? She doubted it./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Bobby came to her with dry clothes, "Here, put these on. You got the target and you made it out alive. You did good." And then Bobby squeezed her arm once the reassure her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I did what I had to to survive and to live with myself." Cruz responded. Cruz realized then that it didn't matter if she was kicked out of the marines. It didn't matter if Aaliyah refused to ever see her again. None of it mattered so long as Aaliyah lived and was safe./p
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div id="chapter-2" class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a;"
h3 class="landmark heading" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; height: 0px; clear: both; color: transparent;"Chapter Managemen/h3
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div class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; text-align: center;"strongPart 2/strong/div
div class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a;" /div
div id="chapter-2" class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a;"Aaliyah div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1041.47px; float: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;" role="article"
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah looked around, still in shock. She wondered how she had gotten here. Why had she listened to the woman that had just killed her father and fiancé? Who was Zara? Who was Cruz? And then the tears started. Her father was dead. No, they were not all that close. She was a girl and her father had little need for girls other than to make marriages that suited his needs and brought the men into the family that he wanted. He had given her more freedom than most fathers though, and for that she had been grateful. None of the tears that fell were for Ehsan. She didn't want to marry him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"She realized she was shivering. Clothes. Find clothes, she told herself. She searched a few cupboards until she found a towel and some clothes that would do. She changed quickly. Then she tried the handle of the door, but it was locked. She had been locked in. She was being kidnapped. Her mother and father had warned her of this very thing. She just couldn't believe it was Zara that kidnapped her. Cruz, she thought to herself, not Zara./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"She sat on the bed, all she could do was await her fate. That was the story of her life after all. Always it fell to others to decide her life. First her father. Next her husband. Not now. Now it fell to whomever these people were that had taken her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"About 45 minutes later a man, with a rather unkempt beard, knocked and entered with a tray of food. He set it on the bed. "Do you need anything else?" He asked./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I don't think so," she said. "Who are you? Where are we going?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""That isn't for me to explain. Someone higher up will come see you soon and tell you what you need to know." With that he left, locking the door once more./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah began to question the choices that brought her to this point. How could she just follow the directions of the woman who murdered her father? But she knew, deep down she knew. She was closer to this woman she obviously didn't know than she'd ever been to anyone in her entire life. She had more trust in her. Aaliyah loved Zara. But did Zara love her? Cruz? What would Aaliyah say to her when she saw the woman that had lied to her about everything after promising not to?/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Then the final conversation she had with Zara came to mind. She had told Aaliyah that she wasn't who Aaliyah thought she was. That she wasn't truthful. That Aaliyah didn't know her. But Aaliyah had not listened, not really, because she was too scared that she will never feel loved like she had in Zara's arms and she wanted that one last time. Zara had tried to tell her something and Aaliyah hadn't listened./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"At that moment a tall woman walked into the room. "My name is Kaitlyn Meade. You are Aaliyah Amrohi."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Yes," Aaliyah nodded./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""The woman who brought you here, the woman you've known as Zara Adid, believes you have intel that could help us. She also believes you would be willing to share that intel so that we can take down other terrorists. She saved your life. Tell me, would you share information with us? If the intel is in fact good and does in fact help us catch other terrorists then we would offer you a chance to live your life as you choose to an extent. You will have to change your name and never contact anyone you once knew, but you could make choices for your own life you only ever dreamed of." Meade explained./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah considered this. What did she know? The men never shared anything important. She had told Zara this many times. A lightbulb went off in Aaliyah's mind. That explained why Zara had asked so much about what she knew./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I don't think I know anything. Information such as that wasn't shared with women. It wasn't shared with me."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""We will be the judge of that. We can ask questions in such a way that will get information you may not even realize you know. But again, I must ask, are you willing to help us?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I honestly don't know. I don't know what to think about tonight. I don't know where I am. I don't know who I am with. I don't know who Zara is. I have so many questions. Why was my father killed? Why was Ehsan killed? Who is Zara? Am I going to live? Have I been kidnapped?" The questions spilled out, one after the other./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I am unable at this moment to answer many of those questions. No, you were not kidnapped. We would consider you rescued. I think you know why your father was killed. We will not kill you, but we can also not let you go knowing what you know. We are in a rather unexpected situation."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""What do you mean? Unexpected?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I cannot divulge any further information without knowing if you plan cooperate or not. I will give you time to consider your options."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""What options? Help you or disappear?" Aaliyah was not stupid, she understood what was being said between the lines./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"The woman just looked at her, consideringly. "I think you understand the tenuousness of the position you are in. I will give you time to think and we will discuss this further in a safe location." And with that the woman left. The door was locked once again./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"These people had not been prepared for her. Aaliyah wondered if Zara had saved her without permission. The thought that kept weaving around her head was the idea of dictating her own life. She would not have to marry. She could decide what to do. All the dreams she once had were possibly within her reach. All she had to do was turn into a traitor for her own people./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Would she have to give up information on her brothers? Her uncles? Who did these people consider terrorists? Then there was the fact that she did not know anything. She could agree to help, do what she wanted with her life, but know little enough that what information she gave wouldn't help them enough to hurt anyone in her family. That seemed more than likely to her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Then, the image of her father covered in blood jumped back into her mind. She could not help these people. Zara, covered in her father's blood, flickered. Bile rose and Aaliyah dove into the very small bathroom to throw up all of the contents of her stomach. No, she could not help these people. She would pretend to, but she would not. She would also not go back. That was a death sentence. Her brothers would either murder her because she was the reason their father was dead or they would marry her off to some horrible man that would brutalize her until she wished she were dead./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah felt utter exhaustion. She whipped her mouth on a towel and then made her way to the bed. She needed to sleep. She laid down, pulling the covers tightly around her, and dropped into a restless sleep filled with dreams of her father, Ehsan, Zara and lots of blood./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"a style="color: #111111; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 19.4443px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" href=" /works/50292208/chapters/127048024"Part 3/a/p
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div id="chapter-3" class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a;"
div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1041.47px; float: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;" role="article"
h3 id="work" class="landmark heading" style="border-width: 0px 0px 0.25em; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: 500; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.125em; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; height: 0px; clear: both; color: transparent; border-color: initial initial #333333 initial; border-style: initial initial double initial;"Chapter Text/h3
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz - One Week Later/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Can I see her? Can I talk to her?" Cruz asked. They had returned to the hanger where they were flown back to the states on separate jets. Cruz had not been allowed to talk to Aaliyah at all since she had saved her a week before. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""No. You can't. You probably won't ever see her again. She will go into hiding. She will help the government for as long as they deem her knowledge helpful. Then she will likely disappear in Witsec. She will make a life without you. I told you. You were like a last hurrah for her. She will move on and find someone else." Joe growled. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""You are wrong Ma'am." Cruz said with conviction. She knew that Aaliyah loved her...or had loved her before Cruz had murdered her father. Did she still love her? Cruz wouldn't know unless she could talk to her. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I guess we will never know. But I do have your papers. You lucked out. You get to stay in the marines. You will go to California. You will stay there. We felt dishonorably discharging you would raise too many questions. You won't even be demoted. We can't explain why if we did. But you will never be promoted. And when your contract is up in..." Joe looked at the paper, "2025 you will not reenlist. Do you understand?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I understand." Cruz nodded./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""You will be honorably discharged. You will keep your benefits and pension. You will not try to find or contact Aaliyah at any point in the future. You will never speak of the Lioness program."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I understand." Cruz nodded./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""You will leave for your base tomorrow."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Yes Ma'am. I need to ask a favor. I realize you won't want to do me any favors, but I have to ask anyway. Will you give Aaliyah this letter?" Cruz pulled a letter out of her pocket. The envelope isn't closed because I know you will want to read it first. It doesn't give away any classified information. It just tells Aaliyah a few things that she needs to know. Closure for her hopefully."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Joe glared at Cruz. She took the letter. "I don't promise anything, but I will see what Meade says. Don't count on it getting to her."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz shrugged. "I hope she knows what is in there anyway. Thank you for letting her live."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Don't thank me. Meade made that happen." Joe explained. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz nodded, stood up and saluted Joe. Cruz didn't understand it, but she just felt calmer these days. She didn't live off her anger anymore. It was just too exhausting. Aaliyah was safe, even if Cruz never saw her again, she could live with everything because Aaliyah was safe./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"a style="color: #111111; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 19.4443px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" href=" /works/50292208/chapters/127048408"Part 4/a/p
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div id="chapter-4" class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a;"
div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1041.47px; float: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;" role="article"
h3 id="work" class="landmark heading" style="border-width: 0px 0px 0.25em; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: 500; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.125em; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; height: 0px; clear: both; color: transparent; border-color: initial initial #333333 initial; border-style: initial initial double initial;"Chapter Text/h3
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah - Three Months Later/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah was learning to live a much less luxurious lifestyle. It was a sudden and dramatic change. She had been set up in a small apartment. She was given a stipend for food and necessities. Soon, she would be expected to get a job. She had been in the United States for three months now. In the end, they had asked her a lot about the locations she had been, places she lived. She was an observant person and so could give many details. She was able to tell them all about the many residences her family had. They seemed to think the information she gave was valuable. Her name had been changed for her protection. She had all new documents and a name she had chosen: Lina Shahd. Aaliyah Amrohi was dead. Drowned in the waters of Mallorca./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Meade would visit her once a week or so asking more questions. Asking what her plans were and reminding her she was being watched. She was not yet fully trusted. That was to be expected. Aaliyah expected Meade the next day. Aaliyah was going to ask her if she could go to school to pursue a degree. She had always wanted to, but had never been given the opportunity. A woman in her culture with a degree was useless to the men. She could now if they allowed it. She wanted to pursue an art degree. She could see herself running a small art gallery. She wouldn't do anything big to draw attention to herself./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Meade arrived at 9 am, just as usual. She looked stern, just as she always did. She was carrying some things in her hands. She walked to the table. There she laid out a large map. She pointed, "That is where you lived most of the time. There is the other compound many of your family lived out." She pointed at a second location on the map. "How did you get from these houses out to the road?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah studied the map. "There is a road, but it is not on this map. It starts here," she pointed to the house and dragged it along the spaces she remembered. "It is hard to see the roads. They do that on purpose to make it difficult to reach the area. The vehicles used are meant for rough terrain."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Meade marked the spots Aaliyah pointed to on the map then asked, "Is there anything else you can tell me about the area?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""It is very well guarded. There are well over 100 guards in both locations. I once saw the office where the guards keep security equipment. They had screens that showed people in color."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Infrared?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I don't know that word, but I would assume you have named it correctly." Aaliyah said./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""That changes things. Thank you for that info. Also, you don't have to accept it, but I have a letter from Cruz Manuelos that she asked be given to you. It was checked of course for any classified information. It is up to you if you want it. If not, I will return it to Joe to give back to her. It was written a while ago, but had to go through the intelligence process before it could be given to you." Meade pulled an envelope from her inner jacket pocket and offered it to Aaliyah./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah considered the letter. She was finally starting to move on, sort of. Did she want to dredge things up again? She took a deep breath and then tentatively took the envelope and set it on the table. "I will take it, but I don't know that I will read it."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Understandable. It is, of course, up to you."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I had a question. I know I will be expected to get a job at some point in the near future. However, I wondered if I might attend university. I would like to pursue an art degree. That is something I have dreamed of my entire life."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Meade considered her for a moment and then took a breath, "I think that may be possible. I will have to look into a few things and get back to you."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Thank you," Aaliyah smiled./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Meade nodded. "Next week then. At some point I will no longer be the one to check on you. Witsec will take over. You will stay in the area for some time longer as we are still able to get needed intel from you, but in time you will be relocated. You will have little say in where you go, but you will have some choices. I will get back to you soon with an answer about university." With that, Meade left./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah sighed and sat down at the table, eyeing the letter. She had finally gotten to a point were Cruz (she had worked hard to change the name she used to the correct one) was not thought of every minute of every day. Now, she might go as much as an hour without Cruz coming to mind. So, she wasn't really moving on, but it was a little better. This would definitely put her back. But she knew she would read the letter. She picked it up and turned it over and over in her hands. She noted her name was not on it. Cruz would have known they would change her name, but not known what it was changed to. She opened the flap and looked inside. Then she closed it and set it back down. She took a deep breath and stood up. She would go shower, change and then read it. She needed to prepare./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"After a longer than usual shower she grabbed the letter off the table and went to the couch. She sat, covered herself with her throw blanket and pulled out the letter. She took a few more deep breaths and then unfolded it./p
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p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" align="left"A,/p
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" align="left" Nothing I say in this letter will ever be enough to get your forgiveness for what I did. I can't forgive myself. But I need to tell you the things that were and are true. My name is Cruz Manuelos. You are the only person I have ever been in love with. You are the only person I will ever be in love with. When I said you would be hard to forget, what I meant was that you would be impossible to forget. I really tried to hold back so I wouldn't hurt you, but I was drawn to you like a magnet and couldn't stop myself from falling in love. I tried to stop it all. I couldn't. I don't feel bad about your fiancé. He told me the day I got there that he planned to rape you and never let you around anyone who cared about you the minute you left the wedding together. I could not let him do that. Everything else I regret. But things just got out of hand once your fiancé attacked me. Then my instincts kicked in and I just couldn't stop them. I was attacked again and I protected myself. And then I saw you there and the fear in your eyes directed at me. I made an instant decision to take you with me so that maybe you could have a life where you could make decisions for yourself without the fear of being killed. I hope you get that. I will always love you./p
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" align="left" Yours always,/p
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" align="left" Cruz/p
hr style="margin: 0.875em auto 1.2525em; border-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; width: 343.672px;" /
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" align="left"It wasn't a long letter. It didn't go into specific details because none of it could be talked about except in the vaguest of terms. Tears streamed down Aaliyah's face. She believed Cruz when she said that it truly had been love. She had felt that all along. She was grateful to know that was not a lie. She also believed that Cruz would not forgive herself. She remembered that final conversation where Cruz had warned her, or tried to. She knew she was still in love with Cruz and that she probably would always be even though they could not be together. She also did not know if she could forgive Cruz for killing her father. Ehsan, he didn't matter. He obviously had been acting the gentleman all along with ulterior motives. But her father really had been more caring than many other fathers she saw. He allowed her freedoms most women in her position did not get. But when she really needed something he had been unwilling to budge. He would have married her off to Ehsan without a second thought. Had he been the horrible man Meade had told her he was? That she had trouble believing because of who he was when they were around each other. However, she knew there was a lot about her father that she did not know and would never know for sure. Still, she did not think he deserved the fate that had befallen him and she loved her father./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah carefully folded the letter back into the envelope. She stood and walked to her bedroom. She had few special possessions given she had just started this new life three months ago, but this would go in with the few important things she had. She carefully placed it in the small box of keepsakes along with the ring she had that claimed her family and the bracelet that Cruz had been wearing when she dragged Aaliyah with her into a new and unexpected life. No one knew she had either thing. She had found the bracelet on the boat as she was taken off and immediately recognized it and picked it up when no one was watching./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"a style="color: #111111; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 19.4443px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" href=" /works/50292208/chapters/127048513"Part 5/a/p
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div id="chapter-5" class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a;"
div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1041.47px; float: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;" role="article"
h3 id="work" class="landmark heading" style="border-width: 0px 0px 0.25em; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: 500; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.125em; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; height: 0px; clear: both; color: transparent; border-color: initial initial #333333 initial; border-style: initial initial double initial;"Chapter Text/h3
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz- Four Months Later/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz Manuelos stood at attention in her superior officer's office. She had been in California for six months now. She had adjusted back into her life prior to being picked for the Lioness program. Joe had given her a story to account for the time she was gone. She had been on a protection detail for an important daughter of a diplomat. They had needed a female with her skill set. That daughter had gone back to her country and so Cruz's services were no longer needed. It hadn't been Cruz's cup of tea so after that rather than continuing in such a role she had asked to go back to a position similar to what she had done before joining the program and they granted that request. However, her boss from that time was pretty pissed, so she probably wouldn't get any more promotions. It all fit, explained her time away, and people had few questions about such a boring job. If Cruz seemed calmer and more controlled, she attributed that to the training she had received while away. She had to learn more control to deal with a spoiled brat and would laugh it off./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz knew her time in the marines was limited. She had to figure out what she would do when she was discharged. The more she focused on all that, the less she had to focus on Aaliyah. But Aaliyah was never far from her thoughts though, as much as she tried to forget. Nighttime was the worst. Her dreams betrayed her every night. In her dreams she made love to Aaliyah over and over. She watched Aaliyah die over and over without being able to save her. She had left her behind, killed her accidently, watched Ehsan rape and murder her. It took all her strength not to drink to the point of blacking out. However, she knew she couldn't allow herself that out. Cruz was determined to keep it together. Knowing there were so many women who couldn't decide anything about their own life made her all the more determined to make something out of her own. Knowing Aaliyah and so many like her expected to live their life without making any major decisions had really made her reevaluate her own choices. She would do better. She was taking classes on the side. She was studying criminal justice at the local community college. She liked the idea of being a detective or something along those lines./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""What are you plans for when it is time to reenlist? You have a year left before you decide if you want to stay or go," Sergeant Tims asked./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I don't plan to reenlist, Sir."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""What? Why not Manuelos?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I think it is time to take control of my life. I am thinking of joining the police force. I would like to be a detective. I am taking classes at the community college, Sir." Cruz explained./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Sergeant Tims nodded. That made sense for Manuelos./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Let me know if you want a reference, I would happily write one for you. The maturity I have seen since joining us compared to what is in your notes, it has been a great improvement. I am proud of you Manuelos."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Thank you, Sir," Cruz replied./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Dismissed."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz saluted and turned on her heal to leave. She headed back to her apartment. She had to study before class the following morning. She fell asleep sitting on the couch, her textbook splayed out on her chest./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Of course the dreams came. It began with her feeling again the dumbstruck feeling she'd felt the first time Aaliyah had kissed her. The feeling before she had pulled away. The realization of all the feelings that had been building unknown inside her while she had spent time with Aaliyah. It ended with Aaliyah drowning in the waters between the shore and boat because she couldn't make it to the boat as it drifted further and further from them. She didn't have the strength to continue. She slipped between the waves and disappeared. Even in sleep tears flowed down Cruz's cheeks./p
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div class="chapter preface group" style="border-width: 1px 0px 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.5em 3em; padding: 0.643em 0.643em 0px; float: none; border-style: solid initial initial initial;"
h3 class="title" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.286em; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0.5375em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1; background: 0px 0px; text-align: center;"a style="color: #111111; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 19.4443px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" href=" /works/50292208/chapters/127047664"Part 1/a/h3
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div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1041.47px; float: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;" role="article"
h3 id="work" class="landmark heading" style="border-width: 0px 0px 0.25em; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: 500; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.125em; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; height: 0px; clear: both; color: transparent; border-color: initial initial #333333 initial; border-style: initial initial double initial;"Chapter Text/h3
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz was beside herself. Here she was, in her t-shirt and underwear, having a conversation with her mark, Asmar Amrohi. He was here, right in front of her. And she knew, unless something changed drastically, that she couldn't kill him. She was too in love with Aaliyah to do that to her. She took the spoon from him to try the gelato. It was delicious. Should she tell him what an asshole Ehsan was so he would force him to treat Aaliyah better? He seemed the doting father. But was it all just an act?/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"That is when she heard the loud voice coming her way. She looked at the door to see Ehsan charging in, yelling./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Marine! You're a United States fucking marine!" Ehsan yelled./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"She hit him in face with a palm strike. He fell sideways onto the counter hard and was dazed. Cruz pulled a knife from the knife block and stabbed him in the neck. Honestly, she was happy to kill him. He was a bastard who planned to rape and treat Aaliyah horribly. Asmar, realizing who and what she was, also attacked, hitting her with a frying pan. Her instincts kicked in before she could shut them off. In a matter of seconds, he, too, was lying on the ground, throat cut along with many stabs to his vital organs. He was dead. She was covered in their blood. She pinched the beacon in her necklace, setting it off./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Then she heard a whimper from the stairs. She looked up to see Aaliyah frozen in terror. Scared of her. That sent a painful stabbing pain through her heart. In less than a second, she made a decision she knew she would get in trouble for. Cruz grabbed Aaliyah's wrist and tugged. She didn't say anything, just pulled, and Aaliyah, thank God, did not fight. She began trailing behind Cruz and Cruz ran pulling Aaliyah. When they burst through the doors to the large patio, she whisper-yelled, "Run!" and pushed Aaliyah in front of her. Aaliyah ran. Cruz ran behind her, pushing her to change their direction often to create a zig-zag pattern. She hoped they could make it a ways before anyone figured out what had happened. Then she felt it. Small pieces of the stone around her exploded and pelted painful little pieces at them. They were being shot at. "Keep running!" She yelled again. "No matter what, do not stop! Run for the water."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz noted in the back of her head that they were not being shot at as much as she would expect. The guards were probably not sure why they were shooting yet, and noted Aaliyah and didn't want to actually hurt her. All the better in Cruz's mind. They just might live through this. They came to the first wall to jump down. Aaliyah slowed. "Jump!" In a time like this, where Aaliyah was freaking out, Cruz knew short directives were best. Do not let her think, Cruz thought to herself./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah jumped and Cruz jumped after her. They jumped down the second and third walls as well. Cruz looked ahead for cover and saw some. She pointed, "Run there!" Aaliyah ran. Cruz made them zig-zag. They ducked for cover behind a stone statue. The gunfire was increasing the closer to the water they ran. Cruz eyed another statue and pointed. "There!" She gave Aaliyah another shove and ran behind her to cover her. The ducked behind the second statue. The gunfire increased exponentially at this point. The guards no longer cared that Aaliyah was with her. They were going for the kill now. Then she heard the quieter zip-zip of the guns from her team. The guards were being shot down. Her team was here./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Joe made it to them first, "I've got them!" she yelled to the team. And then to the women, "Get up!" She directed them to the water while the rest of the team covered them. "Swim to it!" They both dove in and swam as hard as they could to the boat. They were on deck when Joe climbed up. "What the fuck, Cruz? This was not part of the mission. This was span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"not/span your call." Joe took Aaliyah by the arm and led her below deck. Joe showed her to a room, mentioning she could dry off and find dry clothes but that she needed to stay out of sight. Aaliyah nodded her understanding, but said nothing. Joe locked her in as she left and went back on deck. Meade thundered up to Cruz./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Did you hit the target?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I hit the target."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""The Ace of Spades is dead?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""The Ace of Spades is dead."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Meade turned and spoke into the phone. "We have joy. I repeat, we have joy." Meade then turned on Cruz. "What the fuck is Aaliyah Amrohi doing on this boat? I don't remember that as being part of the mission."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""No Ma'am. She came upon me just after I killed her father and fiancé in the kitchen. I couldn't leave her there to spread word of what happened."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I understand that we do not like to leave witnesses behind, but we don't bring them with us. We eliminate them."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I made a decision. I had no way to contact anyone to clear it. She knows things. She knows more than she realizes and what she knows could be very useful in future missions."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I understand that you are new to this line of work within the marines. I also realize you don't have the training you probably should for the job. But I can assure you this... span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"choice.../span has likely ended your career as a marine." With that she spun on her heal and went back into the cabin./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz stood there, silver blanket around her, in her wet shirt and underwear. She wasn't sure what to do at this point. She had saved Aaliyah, but would Aaliyah ever forgive her? She doubted it./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Bobby came to her with dry clothes, "Here, put these on. You got the target and you made it out alive. You did good." And then Bobby squeezed her arm once the reassure her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I did what I had to to survive and to live with myself." Cruz responded. Cruz realized then that it didn't matter if she was kicked out of the marines. It didn't matter if Aaliyah refused to ever see her again. None of it mattered so long as Aaliyah lived and was safe./p
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div id="chapter-2" class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a;"
h3 class="landmark heading" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; height: 0px; clear: both; color: transparent;"Chapter Managemen/h3
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div class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a; text-align: center;"strongPart 2/strong/div
div class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a;" /div
div id="chapter-2" class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a;"Aaliyah div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1041.47px; float: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;" role="article"
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah looked around, still in shock. She wondered how she had gotten here. Why had she listened to the woman that had just killed her father and fiancé? Who was Zara? Who was Cruz? And then the tears started. Her father was dead. No, they were not all that close. She was a girl and her father had little need for girls other than to make marriages that suited his needs and brought the men into the family that he wanted. He had given her more freedom than most fathers though, and for that she had been grateful. None of the tears that fell were for Ehsan. She didn't want to marry him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"She realized she was shivering. Clothes. Find clothes, she told herself. She searched a few cupboards until she found a towel and some clothes that would do. She changed quickly. Then she tried the handle of the door, but it was locked. She had been locked in. She was being kidnapped. Her mother and father had warned her of this very thing. She just couldn't believe it was Zara that kidnapped her. Cruz, she thought to herself, not Zara./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"She sat on the bed, all she could do was await her fate. That was the story of her life after all. Always it fell to others to decide her life. First her father. Next her husband. Not now. Now it fell to whomever these people were that had taken her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"About 45 minutes later a man, with a rather unkempt beard, knocked and entered with a tray of food. He set it on the bed. "Do you need anything else?" He asked./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I don't think so," she said. "Who are you? Where are we going?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""That isn't for me to explain. Someone higher up will come see you soon and tell you what you need to know." With that he left, locking the door once more./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah began to question the choices that brought her to this point. How could she just follow the directions of the woman who murdered her father? But she knew, deep down she knew. She was closer to this woman she obviously didn't know than she'd ever been to anyone in her entire life. She had more trust in her. Aaliyah loved Zara. But did Zara love her? Cruz? What would Aaliyah say to her when she saw the woman that had lied to her about everything after promising not to?/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Then the final conversation she had with Zara came to mind. She had told Aaliyah that she wasn't who Aaliyah thought she was. That she wasn't truthful. That Aaliyah didn't know her. But Aaliyah had not listened, not really, because she was too scared that she will never feel loved like she had in Zara's arms and she wanted that one last time. Zara had tried to tell her something and Aaliyah hadn't listened./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"At that moment a tall woman walked into the room. "My name is Kaitlyn Meade. You are Aaliyah Amrohi."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Yes," Aaliyah nodded./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""The woman who brought you here, the woman you've known as Zara Adid, believes you have intel that could help us. She also believes you would be willing to share that intel so that we can take down other terrorists. She saved your life. Tell me, would you share information with us? If the intel is in fact good and does in fact help us catch other terrorists then we would offer you a chance to live your life as you choose to an extent. You will have to change your name and never contact anyone you once knew, but you could make choices for your own life you only ever dreamed of." Meade explained./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah considered this. What did she know? The men never shared anything important. She had told Zara this many times. A lightbulb went off in Aaliyah's mind. That explained why Zara had asked so much about what she knew./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I don't think I know anything. Information such as that wasn't shared with women. It wasn't shared with me."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""We will be the judge of that. We can ask questions in such a way that will get information you may not even realize you know. But again, I must ask, are you willing to help us?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I honestly don't know. I don't know what to think about tonight. I don't know where I am. I don't know who I am with. I don't know who Zara is. I have so many questions. Why was my father killed? Why was Ehsan killed? Who is Zara? Am I going to live? Have I been kidnapped?" The questions spilled out, one after the other./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I am unable at this moment to answer many of those questions. No, you were not kidnapped. We would consider you rescued. I think you know why your father was killed. We will not kill you, but we can also not let you go knowing what you know. We are in a rather unexpected situation."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""What do you mean? Unexpected?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I cannot divulge any further information without knowing if you plan cooperate or not. I will give you time to consider your options."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""What options? Help you or disappear?" Aaliyah was not stupid, she understood what was being said between the lines./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"The woman just looked at her, consideringly. "I think you understand the tenuousness of the position you are in. I will give you time to think and we will discuss this further in a safe location." And with that the woman left. The door was locked once again./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"These people had not been prepared for her. Aaliyah wondered if Zara had saved her without permission. The thought that kept weaving around her head was the idea of dictating her own life. She would not have to marry. She could decide what to do. All the dreams she once had were possibly within her reach. All she had to do was turn into a traitor for her own people./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Would she have to give up information on her brothers? Her uncles? Who did these people consider terrorists? Then there was the fact that she did not know anything. She could agree to help, do what she wanted with her life, but know little enough that what information she gave wouldn't help them enough to hurt anyone in her family. That seemed more than likely to her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Then, the image of her father covered in blood jumped back into her mind. She could not help these people. Zara, covered in her father's blood, flickered. Bile rose and Aaliyah dove into the very small bathroom to throw up all of the contents of her stomach. No, she could not help these people. She would pretend to, but she would not. She would also not go back. That was a death sentence. Her brothers would either murder her because she was the reason their father was dead or they would marry her off to some horrible man that would brutalize her until she wished she were dead./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah felt utter exhaustion. She whipped her mouth on a towel and then made her way to the bed. She needed to sleep. She laid down, pulling the covers tightly around her, and dropped into a restless sleep filled with dreams of her father, Ehsan, Zara and lots of blood./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"a style="color: #111111; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 19.4443px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" href=" /works/50292208/chapters/127048024"Part 3/a/p
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div id="chapter-3" class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a;"
div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1041.47px; float: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;" role="article"
h3 id="work" class="landmark heading" style="border-width: 0px 0px 0.25em; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: 500; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.125em; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; height: 0px; clear: both; color: transparent; border-color: initial initial #333333 initial; border-style: initial initial double initial;"Chapter Text/h3
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz - One Week Later/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Can I see her? Can I talk to her?" Cruz asked. They had returned to the hanger where they were flown back to the states on separate jets. Cruz had not been allowed to talk to Aaliyah at all since she had saved her a week before. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""No. You can't. You probably won't ever see her again. She will go into hiding. She will help the government for as long as they deem her knowledge helpful. Then she will likely disappear in Witsec. She will make a life without you. I told you. You were like a last hurrah for her. She will move on and find someone else." Joe growled. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""You are wrong Ma'am." Cruz said with conviction. She knew that Aaliyah loved her...or had loved her before Cruz had murdered her father. Did she still love her? Cruz wouldn't know unless she could talk to her. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I guess we will never know. But I do have your papers. You lucked out. You get to stay in the marines. You will go to California. You will stay there. We felt dishonorably discharging you would raise too many questions. You won't even be demoted. We can't explain why if we did. But you will never be promoted. And when your contract is up in..." Joe looked at the paper, "2025 you will not reenlist. Do you understand?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I understand." Cruz nodded./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""You will be honorably discharged. You will keep your benefits and pension. You will not try to find or contact Aaliyah at any point in the future. You will never speak of the Lioness program."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I understand." Cruz nodded./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""You will leave for your base tomorrow."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Yes Ma'am. I need to ask a favor. I realize you won't want to do me any favors, but I have to ask anyway. Will you give Aaliyah this letter?" Cruz pulled a letter out of her pocket. The envelope isn't closed because I know you will want to read it first. It doesn't give away any classified information. It just tells Aaliyah a few things that she needs to know. Closure for her hopefully."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Joe glared at Cruz. She took the letter. "I don't promise anything, but I will see what Meade says. Don't count on it getting to her."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz shrugged. "I hope she knows what is in there anyway. Thank you for letting her live."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Don't thank me. Meade made that happen." Joe explained. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz nodded, stood up and saluted Joe. Cruz didn't understand it, but she just felt calmer these days. She didn't live off her anger anymore. It was just too exhausting. Aaliyah was safe, even if Cruz never saw her again, she could live with everything because Aaliyah was safe./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"a style="color: #111111; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 19.4443px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" href=" /works/50292208/chapters/127048408"Part 4/a/p
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div id="chapter-4" class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a;"
div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1041.47px; float: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;" role="article"
h3 id="work" class="landmark heading" style="border-width: 0px 0px 0.25em; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: 500; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.125em; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; height: 0px; clear: both; color: transparent; border-color: initial initial #333333 initial; border-style: initial initial double initial;"Chapter Text/h3
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah - Three Months Later/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah was learning to live a much less luxurious lifestyle. It was a sudden and dramatic change. She had been set up in a small apartment. She was given a stipend for food and necessities. Soon, she would be expected to get a job. She had been in the United States for three months now. In the end, they had asked her a lot about the locations she had been, places she lived. She was an observant person and so could give many details. She was able to tell them all about the many residences her family had. They seemed to think the information she gave was valuable. Her name had been changed for her protection. She had all new documents and a name she had chosen: Lina Shahd. Aaliyah Amrohi was dead. Drowned in the waters of Mallorca./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Meade would visit her once a week or so asking more questions. Asking what her plans were and reminding her she was being watched. She was not yet fully trusted. That was to be expected. Aaliyah expected Meade the next day. Aaliyah was going to ask her if she could go to school to pursue a degree. She had always wanted to, but had never been given the opportunity. A woman in her culture with a degree was useless to the men. She could now if they allowed it. She wanted to pursue an art degree. She could see herself running a small art gallery. She wouldn't do anything big to draw attention to herself./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Meade arrived at 9 am, just as usual. She looked stern, just as she always did. She was carrying some things in her hands. She walked to the table. There she laid out a large map. She pointed, "That is where you lived most of the time. There is the other compound many of your family lived out." She pointed at a second location on the map. "How did you get from these houses out to the road?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah studied the map. "There is a road, but it is not on this map. It starts here," she pointed to the house and dragged it along the spaces she remembered. "It is hard to see the roads. They do that on purpose to make it difficult to reach the area. The vehicles used are meant for rough terrain."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Meade marked the spots Aaliyah pointed to on the map then asked, "Is there anything else you can tell me about the area?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""It is very well guarded. There are well over 100 guards in both locations. I once saw the office where the guards keep security equipment. They had screens that showed people in color."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Infrared?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I don't know that word, but I would assume you have named it correctly." Aaliyah said./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""That changes things. Thank you for that info. Also, you don't have to accept it, but I have a letter from Cruz Manuelos that she asked be given to you. It was checked of course for any classified information. It is up to you if you want it. If not, I will return it to Joe to give back to her. It was written a while ago, but had to go through the intelligence process before it could be given to you." Meade pulled an envelope from her inner jacket pocket and offered it to Aaliyah./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah considered the letter. She was finally starting to move on, sort of. Did she want to dredge things up again? She took a deep breath and then tentatively took the envelope and set it on the table. "I will take it, but I don't know that I will read it."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Understandable. It is, of course, up to you."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I had a question. I know I will be expected to get a job at some point in the near future. However, I wondered if I might attend university. I would like to pursue an art degree. That is something I have dreamed of my entire life."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Meade considered her for a moment and then took a breath, "I think that may be possible. I will have to look into a few things and get back to you."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Thank you," Aaliyah smiled./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Meade nodded. "Next week then. At some point I will no longer be the one to check on you. Witsec will take over. You will stay in the area for some time longer as we are still able to get needed intel from you, but in time you will be relocated. You will have little say in where you go, but you will have some choices. I will get back to you soon with an answer about university." With that, Meade left./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah sighed and sat down at the table, eyeing the letter. She had finally gotten to a point were Cruz (she had worked hard to change the name she used to the correct one) was not thought of every minute of every day. Now, she might go as much as an hour without Cruz coming to mind. So, she wasn't really moving on, but it was a little better. This would definitely put her back. But she knew she would read the letter. She picked it up and turned it over and over in her hands. She noted her name was not on it. Cruz would have known they would change her name, but not known what it was changed to. She opened the flap and looked inside. Then she closed it and set it back down. She took a deep breath and stood up. She would go shower, change and then read it. She needed to prepare./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"After a longer than usual shower she grabbed the letter off the table and went to the couch. She sat, covered herself with her throw blanket and pulled out the letter. She took a few more deep breaths and then unfolded it./p
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p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" align="left"A,/p
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" align="left" Nothing I say in this letter will ever be enough to get your forgiveness for what I did. I can't forgive myself. But I need to tell you the things that were and are true. My name is Cruz Manuelos. You are the only person I have ever been in love with. You are the only person I will ever be in love with. When I said you would be hard to forget, what I meant was that you would be impossible to forget. I really tried to hold back so I wouldn't hurt you, but I was drawn to you like a magnet and couldn't stop myself from falling in love. I tried to stop it all. I couldn't. I don't feel bad about your fiancé. He told me the day I got there that he planned to rape you and never let you around anyone who cared about you the minute you left the wedding together. I could not let him do that. Everything else I regret. But things just got out of hand once your fiancé attacked me. Then my instincts kicked in and I just couldn't stop them. I was attacked again and I protected myself. And then I saw you there and the fear in your eyes directed at me. I made an instant decision to take you with me so that maybe you could have a life where you could make decisions for yourself without the fear of being killed. I hope you get that. I will always love you./p
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" align="left" Yours always,/p
p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" align="left" Cruz/p
hr style="margin: 0.875em auto 1.2525em; border-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; width: 343.672px;" /
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" align="left"It wasn't a long letter. It didn't go into specific details because none of it could be talked about except in the vaguest of terms. Tears streamed down Aaliyah's face. She believed Cruz when she said that it truly had been love. She had felt that all along. She was grateful to know that was not a lie. She also believed that Cruz would not forgive herself. She remembered that final conversation where Cruz had warned her, or tried to. She knew she was still in love with Cruz and that she probably would always be even though they could not be together. She also did not know if she could forgive Cruz for killing her father. Ehsan, he didn't matter. He obviously had been acting the gentleman all along with ulterior motives. But her father really had been more caring than many other fathers she saw. He allowed her freedoms most women in her position did not get. But when she really needed something he had been unwilling to budge. He would have married her off to Ehsan without a second thought. Had he been the horrible man Meade had told her he was? That she had trouble believing because of who he was when they were around each other. However, she knew there was a lot about her father that she did not know and would never know for sure. Still, she did not think he deserved the fate that had befallen him and she loved her father./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Aaliyah carefully folded the letter back into the envelope. She stood and walked to her bedroom. She had few special possessions given she had just started this new life three months ago, but this would go in with the few important things she had. She carefully placed it in the small box of keepsakes along with the ring she had that claimed her family and the bracelet that Cruz had been wearing when she dragged Aaliyah with her into a new and unexpected life. No one knew she had either thing. She had found the bracelet on the boat as she was taken off and immediately recognized it and picked it up when no one was watching./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"a style="color: #111111; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 19.4443px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" href=" /works/50292208/chapters/127048513"Part 5/a/p
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div id="chapter-5" class="chapter" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #2a2a2a;"
div class="userstuff module" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 1041.47px; float: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;" role="article"
h3 id="work" class="landmark heading" style="border-width: 0px 0px 0.25em; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; font-weight: 500; font-style: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.125em; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; height: 0px; clear: both; color: transparent; border-color: initial initial #333333 initial; border-style: initial initial double initial;"Chapter Text/h3
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz- Four Months Later/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz Manuelos stood at attention in her superior officer's office. She had been in California for six months now. She had adjusted back into her life prior to being picked for the Lioness program. Joe had given her a story to account for the time she was gone. She had been on a protection detail for an important daughter of a diplomat. They had needed a female with her skill set. That daughter had gone back to her country and so Cruz's services were no longer needed. It hadn't been Cruz's cup of tea so after that rather than continuing in such a role she had asked to go back to a position similar to what she had done before joining the program and they granted that request. However, her boss from that time was pretty pissed, so she probably wouldn't get any more promotions. It all fit, explained her time away, and people had few questions about such a boring job. If Cruz seemed calmer and more controlled, she attributed that to the training she had received while away. She had to learn more control to deal with a spoiled brat and would laugh it off./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz knew her time in the marines was limited. She had to figure out what she would do when she was discharged. The more she focused on all that, the less she had to focus on Aaliyah. But Aaliyah was never far from her thoughts though, as much as she tried to forget. Nighttime was the worst. Her dreams betrayed her every night. In her dreams she made love to Aaliyah over and over. She watched Aaliyah die over and over without being able to save her. She had left her behind, killed her accidently, watched Ehsan rape and murder her. It took all her strength not to drink to the point of blacking out. However, she knew she couldn't allow herself that out. Cruz was determined to keep it together. Knowing there were so many women who couldn't decide anything about their own life made her all the more determined to make something out of her own. Knowing Aaliyah and so many like her expected to live their life without making any major decisions had really made her reevaluate her own choices. She would do better. She was taking classes on the side. She was studying criminal justice at the local community college. She liked the idea of being a detective or something along those lines./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""What are you plans for when it is time to reenlist? You have a year left before you decide if you want to stay or go," Sergeant Tims asked./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I don't plan to reenlist, Sir."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""What? Why not Manuelos?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I think it is time to take control of my life. I am thinking of joining the police force. I would like to be a detective. I am taking classes at the community college, Sir." Cruz explained./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Sergeant Tims nodded. That made sense for Manuelos./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Let me know if you want a reference, I would happily write one for you. The maturity I have seen since joining us compared to what is in your notes, it has been a great improvement. I am proud of you Manuelos."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Thank you, Sir," Cruz replied./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Dismissed."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Cruz saluted and turned on her heal to leave. She headed back to her apartment. She had to study before class the following morning. She fell asleep sitting on the couch, her textbook splayed out on her chest./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"Of course the dreams came. It began with her feeling again the dumbstruck feeling she'd felt the first time Aaliyah had kissed her. The feeling before she had pulled away. The realization of all the feelings that had been building unknown inside her while she had spent time with Aaliyah. It ended with Aaliyah drowning in the waters between the shore and boat because she couldn't make it to the boat as it drifted further and further from them. She didn't have the strength to continue. She slipped between the waves and disappeared. Even in sleep tears flowed down Cruz's cheeks./p
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