Chapter 28 - Reunion

Startled by a sudden thud, Kenzi's eyes shot wide open.

She held her breath and listened.

The sound of heavy, rapid punches coming from Bo's room made her catapult out of her bed.

She grabbed the baseball bat next to her nightstand and put on a football helmet.

Dashing into Bo's room, she shouted, "aggggghhhhhh!"

She was ready to pounce on the invader, but instead, she found her bestie, Bo, fighting a large wooden wing chun dummy that she didn't even know existed in the house before.

"Morning, Kenz!" Bo, breathless, greeted her with a high spirit. Her face glistened in sweat.

"What the hell, Bo?! It's 5:50 in the morning!" Kenzi lifted the helmet and grunted.

"I know, and look how bright and warm the sun is already! Feels so great to just get up and break a sweat like this! Why didn't we do this before?!"

"Because it's 5:50 in the morning! Since when do we ever care how bright and warm the sunlight or whatever is? We live like vampires, remember?"

"Well, we shouldn't," Bo sat down in her bed as she raised and shook her index finger in front of Kenzi's face. "Getting up early is good for our bodies and spirits. The morning sun gets all your body chemicals in the right places."

Kenzi muttered a cuss. She moved her eyes from her best friend's smile to a transparent blender cup that was on the floor. It had something green in it.

"Ewww, what is that?!" Kenzi exclaimed.

"My breakfast."

"Like...you are actually gonna drink that? Oh Bobo, please at least tell me it has booze."

"No, no one puts that in a healthy smoothie like this!" Bo chuckled as she raised the cup and took a sip. "Mmmmm, yummy! I can just taste every single bit of it."

"Yeah, I'll bet. What did you put in there? Ogre booger and slime juice?"

"No!" Bo grinned. "It has spinach, kale, ginger root..."

Kenzi grimaced at each and every ingredient. When Bo mentioned celery, she had finally had enough.

"Stahhhhp!" Kenzi yelled as she covered her ears. She snatched the cup out of Bo's hands and placed it on the floor.

Then, she made a face, and moved it out of the room, in the hallway and closed the door.

She grabbed Bo's shoulders and stared into those sparkling browns. "When was the last time you slept, or showered, or ate?"

"Umm, I was eating my breakfast until-" Bo pointed at the closed door.

"No, I mean, like real food! Pizza, General Tso's..."

"Oh, you mean the things we used to eat that's full of empty carbs, artificial ingredients and saturated fat? I'm done with those things. From now on, my diet will be healthy, lean, clean and...and good. See, it's all in here!"

She raised a book titled "Healthy Food: Good Energy" with a big smile.

Kenzi covered her forehead and closed her eyes. She sat down beside Bo and held her hand. "Look, I know. It hurts. You are hurt. It sucks. Everything sucks balls! Shit has hit the fan and it's just…raining shit everywhere! Bo-Bo, I get it. I really do. Please deal with this like a normal person! Stay in your bed all day! Drink a bottle of whiskey and vent! Eat two tubs of rocky road for crying out loud! Not…not this!"

"I don't need to deal with anything, Kenz. I'm already over it."

"Right, this is over it. Sure." Kenzi waved her fingers at Bo's sweat soaked hair and her shirt that probably had been worn for more than two days. "Oh sweetie, please listen to me when I say this: you are so not over it. Why don't we just...go out and have some fun, like we always do when we...you know, deal with things?"

"You mean like bar hopping while flirting with strangers and stuff? I don't feel like I'm in the mood."

"Well you should be! I mean, look at yourself, Bo. You are not yourself!"

"Well, self is up to interpretation, and that's okay! Life is a journey and we discover ourselves along the way!"

"Dear Mother Russia, are you listening to those bullshit motivation podcasts again? Oh this is bad...this is so bad...this is worse than bad…."

"Well, if you must know. This podcast is mind blowing! I listened to it last night! Wow!"

"And let me guess. You didn't sleep at all last night, did you?"

"So?" Bo shrugged. "I think I'm allowed to lose sleep once in a while. I like to ponder things from time to time."

Kenzi rolled her eyes. "By any chance you were pondering things like when she might come back?"

Bo managed a smile, as a look of hurt fleeted briefly in her eyes.

Kenzi sighed. "I'm here if you want to talk about it, and don't say you don't want cuz you and I both know that you want to, Bo. The first day after she left, you cleaned, vacuumed and scrubbed. The second day, you tried to repair the entire shack…and now, this! You are freaking me out!"

Bo swung her legs back and forth as she pursed her lips. "I suppose I could talk about it…."

"Yes, pleeeease."

Bo exhaled. "Well, I guess I am a bit upset that she left without saying goodbye three days ago."

"A bit?"

Bo held up her thumb and index finger, leaving about half an inch of spacing between the two fingers. "A bit," she repeated with one of her eyes squinted.

"Ooooookay, if you say so," Kenzi drawled. She looked around and picked up an almost empty whiskey bottle from the floor. After taking a whiff, she handed it to Bo.

Bo stared at the whiskey bottle for a long time, before she took it. She squeezed the bottle like she wanted to crush it with bare hands. "I'm…angry. I just don't know whom I should be angry with. It's infuriating."

"Mhm, angry, infuriating, good. We are getting somewhere. Keep going, take a sip and get it all out."

Bo took a sip. "This whole thing is so fucking…it hurts."

As that confession left Bo, she deflated.

"Hold that thought for one second, my dear," Kenzi said, before she quickly went downstairs and fetched some snacks from the vending machine.

She opened a bag of red Dorito's and offered it to Bo. Bo refused, so she started to eat. "Have you...I mean, did she at least tell you where she went?"

Bo nodded. "Motel 6."

"Good…she probably just...needs some time."

After a long period of silence, Kenzi nudged Bo. "So she has an ex. Who doesn't?"

"She doesn't just have an ex, Kenz. She has an ex who looked exactly like me. The whole time, she might be seeing her through me."

"Okay, fine, but that doesn't mean whatever you two have isn't there."

"Yeah, sure. I bet next you are gonna tell me that she might still choose me over her, right?"

"Ummm no...yes...no…?"

"That's the thing, Kenzi. I don't want her to choose."

"Wait, you don't?" Kenzi gaped at her, with a big piece of chip in her mouth.

"I don't want her to...treat me and her like two pieces of...things. I don't want her to choose one of us because…well, somehow one is better than the other in some ways or something."

She took a big sip from the bottle and muttered, "I don't want her to choose me but then spend the rest of her life wondering if she had made the right decision."

She shook her head and let out a heavy sigh. "I don't want her to choose at all. She should just…know. I want her to just know. I want her to just know which of us is the person she wants to be with."

Kenzi nodded and patted Bo on her back. She reached for more Doritos, but frowned when she realized that the bag was already empty.

She stared into the bag, and then turned it upside down looking for a possible hole in the bottom.

She found nothing there, and she couldn't understand how a half full bag of chips could suddenly turn empty.

"Where did all my chips go?!"

"Oh, it's Fenrir," Bo said. "He's been on a bit of a junk food frenzy lately."

Kenzi gasped. "Fenrir, as in the wolf, your...spiritual companion? He's right here, in this room, with us?"

Bo nodded. "He's been here the whole time. Resting his head on your lap right now."

"No wonder why my legs feel so heavy! I thought it was because I got up too early today!"

Kenzi tried to pet the wolf that she couldn't see. One second she thought she had faintly felt fur under her palm. The next it wasn't there.

"Ugggh! I hate when there's a pup here that I can not pet."

She opened another bag of chips, and watched in awe as the chips inside "magically" disappeared.

She almost jumped when Bo's phone suddenly beeped.

"Ohhhh I bet it's her!"

Bo glanced and shook her head. "No, it's Valhalla."

Kenzi hopped off the bed, alerted. "V-Valhalla?! The organization that took you away from me and then tried to kill you?! Why? Why are they contacting you?! Are the bitches back for blood again?"

"No, we are safe, Kenz," Bo assured her as she squeezed her arm. "I made a deal with them."

"YOU MADE A DEAL WITH THEM?!"

"Well...Tamsin and I-" Bo took a deep breath, as uttering that name hurt, "we can't run from them forever. So...I told them about the other universe."

"You told them everything?"

"No! Just the fact that there's a parallel universe and that I was from there. I'm going to gather information for them."

"I thought you said you'd never go back!"

"I'm not. I'm just freelancing. I do some work for them, and in exchange they call off their dogs on us."

"Are you sure about this, Bo?"

Bo gave her a big shrug. "I really need answers, and I can't do it on my own. Valhalla has resources, so...it's a win win."

"Did you tell her about this?"

Bo shook her head hesitantly. "If I tell her, she'd want to go with me. I don't think that would be a good idea."

"Go...where?"

Bo hopped off the bed and beamed, which gave Kenzi a very bad feeling.

She watched as the brunette opened her closet and revealed a wall of pictures, drawings, writings and red strings to connect them.

"What the hell is all this homicide task force board shit doing here?!" Kenzi exclaimed as she took a closer look. The background was a world map, with many locations marked as "portal". Of the locations that were in North America, one was inside the mountains in the south east; one was inside what seemed to be a residential subdivision in a rundown town; another was an abandoned factory building in Boston...

Besides the photos of the location, there was also a detailed drawing of a masked woman labeled "Ylva", along with a few surveillance photos Valhalla agents took when they were tailing her.

"Is she the..." Kenzi asked.

"Yes, she's Ylva."

"Ohhh, I get it now. You are gonna track her down and...and...kick her ass or something?"

"No. I'm gonna become her."

"I'm sorry, Bobo. I think I might have just had a goblin screaming in my ears so I didn't quite catch that. You are gonna what her?"

"I am going to become her, Kenz," Bo repeated. She then opened a bin inside her closet and pulled out an off-white mask.

It was a mask that did not have any facial features, only three cut outs - two for the eyes and one of the nose.

It was the exact same mask Ylva would wear.

Bo put that on and asked, "how do I look?"

"Ohhh, no, Bo, no, no, no, no, no!" Kenzi shook her head like crazy. "Bad plan. Terrible plan. Worst plan ever! Abort. Abort. Please abort!"

"No, Kenz. Think about it! This is the epic spy mission. I am going to become Ylva and infiltrate Fólkvangr!"

"Are you insane? You think this is like putting on a costume and crashing a halloween party? You can't pretend to be someone else in another universe! People are gonna see right through it!"

"No one's gonna think twice when you have the same face as the other person! Besides, she wears a mask all the time."

Bo changed into a set of outfits that resembled what Ylva wore in those surveillance photos. She then put a pendant around her neck - a small, roundish silver disk with small punch holes that outlined a raven.

"Where did you even get that?"

"Etsy custom order."

"And where did you get THAT?!" Kenzi pointed at a scar that magically appeared on the left side of Bo's neck.

"Valhalla gave me a box of it," Bo showed her a small case of scars and a tube of special glue for application.

Kenzi moved her eyes back and forth between the photos of Ylva and Bo. "Okay, fine, so you nailed the look. What if someone notices the difference between you and her? If people can tell identical twins apart, they can tell the two of you apart. How are you gonna become someone you are not?"

"I'll keep my mouth shut and observe."

"Okay, but I've got a real shocker for you, Bo. What if you get to the other side only to find her standing right there? How are you gonna get out of that one, hmmm?"

"Valhalla's got that covered. I'll only be crossing over when she's on our side. No one's going to suspect a thing, if there's just one of us over there."

"So your best plan is to wait for her to show up? How long is that gonna take? A few days? A week? Months? What if she never comes over ever again?"

"She will, soon."

"You sounded really sure."

Bo gave her a rather bitter smile. "I mean, if I just found out that someone I loved and lost thousands of years ago was still alive, I'd want to see her too. "

"Well, still…it's too risky! What if someone found out? What if you got trapped over there? What if-"

Bo gave her a firm hug. "I'll be careful. I promise. I have to do this."

She let out a small sigh and whispered, "I just have to."

Tamsin woke up with a pounding headache.

Someone was also banging on her motel room door.

She grunted and buried her face into the pillow, hoping that whoever was knocking would just go away.

It persisted, becoming louder and louder.

"It says do not fucking disturb!" Tamsin yelled.

"You need to checkout by 11 am, and it's already 10:55," the person outside yelled back. "If you plan to stay longer you'll have to pay!"

Tamsin groaned. She dug her way out of the bed as she took a few deep breaths.

The pain inside wasn't dying down. Her bursting anger was worse. The bruises on her knuckles reminded her that she might need to punch things less, and the headache was a dire warning that she should start eating things other than vodka.

The banging was not stopping.

"Just give me a damn minute!" Tamsin shouted.

Like a magic spell had been cast, there came a heavy thud, and then everything went quiet.

The hell? Tamsin frowned as she quickly did a sniff test over the pile of clothes in the bedside chair. She grimaced, but still put a shirt and a pair of pants on.

She dragged herself to the door and opened it. Her eyes shot wide open as she saw the person she'd least expected.

Ylva stood there alone, with the unconscious Motel 6 front desk guy lying beneath her feet.

Tamsin wondered what she should do first, greet, or breathe.

Ylva tried to put on a smile, but failed. She ended up giving Tamsin an awkward nod.

"Revna," she muttered.

The name brought waves of emotions to Tamsin. She had to gasp to stop the pain inside her.

Ylva stared at her. Her brown eyes were fierce and deep. "Or…should I call you Tamsin?"

Tamsin had never thought a question like that would hit her so hard. The lump in her throat grew larger. Her heart was about to stop.

"Whatever you…feel like," she bit out while looking away.

"Forgive me," Ylva breathed.

"For what?" Tamsin frowned.

Ylva, instead of explaining, hit Tamsin on the side of her neck with a sudden, hard blow and knocked her out.

Holding an unconscious Tamsin in her arms, she whispered, "for this."

Her voice was both bitter and vulnerable.

When Bo received confirmation from Valhalla that Ylva had come to this universe, she left the shack with gears that she had packed days before.

As she started her car, she pulled her phone out and compiled a text message.

Then, she deleted it, retyped it, and deleted it again.

She stared at Tamsin's name on her screen, before she gathered enough strength and dialed the number.

Tamsin didn't pick up. It sent her to voicemail.

Bo hung up before leaving a message. Then, she rolled her eyes at herself for being such a coward, and dialed Tamsin's number again.

Still no answer.

Bo left a brief message with the calmest, most neutral voice she could manage, letting Tamsin know that she was about to cross over to the other universe.

She quickly ended the call and turned off her cellphone, like something bad would come out of it to haunt her if she didn't.

I'll deal with my relationship drama later. Now is so not the time! She thought as she started her car.

Her plan - or rather, her plan under Valhalla's guidance was bold and simple: Valhalla had previously captured a Fólkvangr agent code name "Mantis". Bo, pretending to be Ylva, would go to Valhalla's holding facility and rescue her.

Everything was just as planned: Bo "broke into" the facility, fought a few Valhalla agents, and rescued Mantis. She drove away with Mantis while being chased by a Valhalla team. After a second round of combat, she "escaped" with Mantis and crossed over to the other universe through the portal in the mountain area.

Bo had thought that getting information out of a Fólkvangr agent would be hard, but it turned out that Mantis, who was a young, inexperienced agent and already a fan of Ylva, couldn't stop gushing. She volunteered more information than Bo could ever ask for.

From her, Bo learned about Fólkvangr's headquarters (referred to as "The Base"), their daily operation, as well as loads of Mantis' personal information including her favorite ice cream flavor and band.

Bo was somewhat surprised to learn that Ylva wasn't just another high level Fólkvangr agent. Instead, she was actually the acting leader of Fólkvangr. The supreme leader of Fólkvangr, "The Great Seer Signe", had not been seen in years.

Bo couldn't help but wonder why Mantis would talk about Signe as if she was still alive.

She's like…thousands of years old. That can't be real. No one could live that long. Was she somehow revived like Tamsin and Ylva or something? Bo wondered.

Knowing that asking that question would blow her cover, she kept her mouth shut.

With her right hand conveniently "injured" during the rescue, Bo managed to get Mantis to drive her to Fólkvangr base.

Swallowing the guilt of lying her ass off to someone who was rather innocent and sincere, Bo let Mantis go.

She then told the front desk her rescue story, and since she "lost" all her credentials while in the other universe, the front desk gave her a temporary access card.

Using her "injured" hand as an excuse again, she had the front desk lady take her to her office.

As she walked into her office, she met a tall woman with short, dark hair.

Bo recognized her as "Mustang", one of the Fólkvangr agents she had seen during her first stakeout mission with Tamsin.

Bo gave her a slight nod. Mustang seemed slightly surprised.

"I wasn't expecting you to be back so soon," the tall woman said hesitantly, immediately standing up to solute her.

"I have something more urgent to deal with here, right now." Bo replied, holding up a poker face. Then, she thought, why bother? I have a damn mask on.

"Of course," Mustang nodded and sat down.

Sitting at her desk, Bo fumbled with the items on her desk: a few books written in languages she didn't know; small decor objects that looked like they belonged in a museum; stacks of printouts of mundane meeting notes.

Then, she stared at a laptop-like device sitting on her desk. The screen was on, but everything was blurred out.

She fumbled with it, and earned a few loud beeping sounds. As Mustang turned to her, she tried hard not to sweat.

"Ummm, my hand is just..." Bo raised her right hand.

"Of course," Mustang immediately came over and plugged in a small access device to the side. After sliding her fingers across the screen, she turned the laptop slightly towards Bo.

"If you don't mind me asking," Mustang said hesitantly. "Why did you risk yourself rescuing that girl?"

"She knows things."

"But…she's just an entry level analyst."

"She knows someone who knows things," Bo explained, throwing out a perfect excuse she had come up with when forging the entire infiltration plan. "She knows someone who knows about Lundeville."

Mustang's eyes opened wide. "But…those who know about Lundeville are all gone."

Bo turned to her with an intense stare.

Mustang frowned slightly, then gasped. "Unless…."

"Unless?"

"Unless she knew someone at Mount Saino Asylum."

"Mhm." Bo made herself sound like she knew and controlled everything.

"But…that place has a strict no visitor allowed policy. How could she-"

"That's exactly what I am trying to figure out. I'm heading to Mount Saino."

"Of course. Let me put together a team-"

"No," Bo held her wrist and squeezed. "No one else can know about this."

"Understood," Mustang nodded firmly. "Let me at least drive you there."

Bo arrived at the facility at dusk. She convinced Mustang to stay in the car to watch the premises.

As she climbed the steep stairs in front of the asylum, she wondered how she could get inside without making anyone suspicious.

It turned out, surprisingly, that the front desk nurse knew and recognized her.

"We…I didn't know we were expecting you today," the nurse stood up to salute her immediately, so nervous that she was visibly sweating.

"I didn't have time to call."

The nurse nodded. "Of course. Let me go get Dr. Feinburg for you."

She left, and came back a moment later with a man in his sixties in a tailored gray suit.

"How may I help you?" The doctor asked her humbly.

Bo froze as she heard his voice, for she recognized it. It was the same voice she remembered when she was given some sort of injection when she was a child. This doctor was there. He was the one who ordered someone else to increase the dosage. He was the one who made her hurt.

She managed a slight nod as she turned her eyes away slightly - she feared that he would see fright in her eyes.

What should I tell him? Bo wondered as she tried to figure out the connection was between this asylum and Lundeville. Could it be that someone who knew about Lundeville was kept here? Or maybe they had kept all documents related to Lundeville? The doctor definitely knew a lot, since he was there when Bo was young, but what question could she ask without drawing any suspicion?

Her silence seemed to have confused the doctor, who stared at her intently.

"How are…things here lately?" Bo eventually asked a vague question.

"Oh, just as usual. Everything's fine after the transfer."

"Right, the transfer." God, what exactly might that transfer be?

"Is there something wrong?" Dr. Feinburg frowned.

Bo shook her head slightly. "I can't go into any details, but did you notice anything unusual?"

The doctor's face turned serious. "No, nothing unusual."

"And the transfer?"

"What about it?"

"Was it…was there anything unusual about the transfer?"

"No, nothing unusual. You were there overseeing the entire process. She was taken to the destination safely and everything was secure."

Finally, there was a "she". Bo thought with a silent sigh of relief. If there was a "she", and if there was a transfer, this "she" must have stayed here some time. "I need to see the room she stayed in."

The doctor frowned hard, but did not question her. He turned around and led the way.

After walking down the long hallway, they arrived at what seemed to be a patient room with a heavy metal door that had a small observation window.

"Leave me," she commanded as she entered the room.

The doctor complied.

Bo scanned the room. It was a standard asylum room, sterile white, about 100 square feet, with nothing but a single bed with restraints.

She noticed that the restraints had dark stains, and wondered if that was blood.

Who could they have possibly held here? Was it someone who lived in Lundeville? Perhaps it was one of her childhood friends?

With a million questions, Bo slowly examined the room.

Then, she noticed something by the foot of the bed - a small trinket, bright yellow.

She picked it up. One close look at it, her heart suddenly stopped.

It was a sunflower brooch.

She knew that brooch. She had seen it in her childhood photos.

It was her mother's brooch.