Pantheon - Chapter Thirteen
The long-awaited update! Sorry it took me so long.
And just for those who are new to the story and want the pairings up front, here you go: Amy/Lucy, Max/Dominique, Janet/sweater. (Heh, sorry, couldn't resist. ;) But the first two are serious. ^_^)
Title: Pantheon
Author: That'd be me. *grins* Andrew, Obsidian, call me what you want. But only if it's nice. ;)
Rating: R, or MA, whichever you understand better. ^_^
Comments: Obviously, this is an AU, but it'll be a bit more alternate then most, as this fic's Amy has something of a hidden past, which is in the process of shaking quite a number of worlds as it surfaces. And if you thought there was angst in my last fic... *evil chuckle*
Sorry for the extended delay on this chapter, but real life interrupted, with a vengeance. Flooded basement, crappy weather (which knocked out the muse), plenty of work, errands, and now a cold... Well, you get the idea. Hopefully, this will have been worth the wait. As an extra-special treat, I even managed to (finally) find the perfect song for the big Amy-Kali fight. The link to it will be three asterisks (like this - ***), placed about where the music would kick in. Feel free to read it first sans music, if you prefer. :)
And now that I've bored you all to tears, let's move on... ^_^
Legal Disclaimer: I do not own 'D.E.B.S.' That belongs to the fabulously talented Angela Robinson. 'The Pretender' was created by Steven Long Mitchell and Craig W. Van Sickle. (No idea who owns it now, as I don't think it's TNT anymore...)
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Chapter Thirteen
Once inside, Kali hesitated. If there was one thing she hated, it was being made to do a job with minimal intelligence. There were times when it couldn't be avoided, certainly, but doing so always carried with it a better then average chance of dying.
Amaterasu's ultimate fate was proof enough of that.
This would be worse then ever, though, given that Sekhmet was in that house, quite possibly waiting for her. The only thing she had going for her so far in that respect was that there was no way Sekhmet would have expected her to get there as quickly as she did. She should have several more hours, at least, before security really started tightening.
She'd have to make the most of every single minute.
The goggles she'd taken from Diamond's lair proved to be very valuable, showing plaid-colored laser sensors on the lawn. She actually wasted a few moments staring incredulously at them, wondering not only why they bothered giving something invisible a color pattern at all, but why it was plaid. Again.
Somebody high up in the organization, she decided, had some serious problems.
Pulling out a small scanning device, she skirted the edge of the shield, slipping along the boundary of the D.E.B.S.' property until it told her she'd reached her destination. Kneeling down and setting aside the weapon she'd been carrying, being careful not to touch the shield, she scooped handfuls of dirt away from a certain spot at its base until she found what she was looking for.
One of the numerous shield emitters located around the property.
Many would have just destroyed it in order to leave themselves a guaranteed way out, but doing that would just alert the D.E.B.S. to her presence. Planting a virus that would infiltrate, infect, and disable their network sounded better, and would create plenty of confusion that would distract them until it was too late, but that wasn't her aim, either.
Her actual goal would take a bit longer, but would carry less risks, and would be much more educational.
First, she carefully disabled any sensors that might have told them someone was playing around with their shield, then she pried open a panel on the casing and began studying the interior mechanism.
Oh... Well, that's interesting... High-tech devices weren't usually her field, but after one job had forced her to infiltrate a lab in Silicon Valley, as well as The Centre's (now somewhat outdated) training in that respect, she had at least a working idea of some of what she was seeing did. The rest she should be able to deduce without too much trouble. She'd never even heard of circuitry quite like this, though, and the energy flow regulators were marvels of engineering.
Her lips twitched into a smile as she thought to herself that those lab techs back in Silicon Valley would have given their collective left arm for technology like this.
Pulling a palmtop computer out of her pocket, she found an access port, plugged it in, and got to work.
**********************************************
Their meeting was over at last, it seemed, but Janet still couldn't find out what was going on. It was frustrating her to no end, really. Ms. Petrie had gone back to wherever the hell it was that she kept going when she teleported out, while Mr. Phipps was on a conference call with... well, she didn't know who with, but he was obviously too busy to bother. Amy would probably have told her what had been decided, but she was evidently alone in her room with Lucy, and Janet found the idea of interrupting whatever they were doing a little scary.
One of Lucy's guards had said that Amy had looked a little miserable about something, probably having to spend time with Lucy. Knowing what she knew, however, Janet suspected that something Centre-related had been dredged up and Amy had been in need of comfort.
Frankly, that was a feeling Janet knew all too well. She stopped in her room and grabbed one of her favorite sweaters.
Yes, that was much better.
The only other person who could tell her what was happening was Dominique, and no one had seen her since she'd evidently gone into her room a while back. After hearing even the little that she had about The Centre, Janet couldn't blame Dominique for wanting to spend as much time in more familiar surroundings as she could. Even just sitting on her own bed was probably calming, she thought as she opened the door.
And froze. Or doing something completely different on her bed.
Hand still on the doorknob, she stared into the room in open-mouthed shock. She really shouldn't have been so surprised, she told herself. After all, this was Dom. If anything, she should have been surprised that it had taken so long to happen.
It was really the fact that the other person in the bed was Max that had stunned her into immobility.
She shouldn't have been just standing there watching, she knew, but a strange kind of horrified fascination kept her eyes locked on the spectacle in front of her. Probably the same kind that made people stop and gawk at car wrecks. The sight of just so much dark skin, Max's head vanished somewhere inbetween Dominique's thighs, Dominique's own head thrown back in wild abandon-
Knocked out of her stupor, Janet took a jerky step, then another, cheeks burning. She barely remembered in time not to slam the door shut, instead closing it as silently as she could. They didn't seem to have noticed her, and she intended on keeping it that way.
Once safely out in the hallway, however, she shook her head incredulously. "God... Am I the only straight one in this entire house?" she wondered aloud, a vague exasperation coloring her tone.
"Well, I hope not," a voice said from behind her. She turned to see one of the D.E.B.S. recruited for guard duty, Kathleen something-or-other.
Janet almost thanked her before she noticed that dark-haired Kathleen's eyes were wandering up and down her body with a distinctively speculative gleam, a hint of a smile on her face.
With a wordless cry of frustration, Janet stalked away towards the stairs.
Observing the exchange, Kathleen's teammate, Monica, shook her head. "You," she said in her lilting Irish accent, "are terrible."
Kathleen gave her an innocent look for all of five seconds before her grin broke through, and the two started laughing.
**********************************************
After doing nothing but hugging Amy for several minutes - hardly the worst fate in the world - Lucy pulled back and looked in her eyes. "Think you might wanna tell me what's going on now?"
Amy sighed. "Just... talking about my final mission, with Amaterasu."
"Ah." That was something she hadn't heard about yet, but she wasn't about to ask, seeing what it did to Amy. "What brought that up?"
Amy fidgeted. "Max and I were talking to Dominique about her problem," she said finally.
"Problem? As in... singular?"
The combination of her words and deadpan delivery managed to elicit a snorted laugh. "Yeah, well... it's the root problem. Or the main effect of the root problem. I'm not sure, I haven't read any psychiatric texts in a while."
"How does that work, anyway?" Lucy asked. "You just read something, and... know how to do it?"
"What can I say? I'm a very fast learner."
"Don't I know it," she said saucily, and Amy giggled, swatting her on the arm. "Shut up!"
"Hey, I didn't say that was a bad thing!" Lucy replied, grinning. "Quite the opposite, really..."
Just managing not to blush, Amy was actually somewhat relieved when someone knocked on the door. She managed to keep a slow, even pace while she walked over to it, but a muffled snicker from Lucy said that she wasn't entirely convinced. Ignoring that, she opened the door and looked at the guard who'd knocked. "Yes?"
"Mister P. wants to speak with you," she said solemnly.
Amy might have been disturbed by that if she hadn't known that both she and her partner had been acting that way the whole time, to try and impress her with how seriously they were taking things. As it was, she had to struggle to keep from rolling her eyes. She checked her watch, did some quick mental math, then nodded. There was still some time. "I'll be right back," she told Lucy, then slipped out past the guards and down the hall.
The guard stared at Lucy.
Lucy stared back.
The guard opened her mouth to speak.
Lucy cut her off before she could say anything. "Yes, I still have both of my hands - and every other body part, for that matter."
The guard at least had the grace to look mildly abashed as she shut the door wordlessly.
Lucy shook her head, silently willing Amy to hurry.
**********************************************
Some time later, Kali had a working understanding of just how the D.E.B.S. system worked. There was a certain elegance to it, which just made the deficiencies in their security that much more glaring. Anybody with a laser cutter, infrared goggles (or something similar, like what she'd 'borrowed' from Diamond), and the ability to jump or skip could come and go as they pleased. She was actually tempted to rewrite some of their security protocols just so they wouldn't look so sloppy, but thankfully the impulse passed. She didn't need to make things harder for herself just to satisfy her desire to not have to deal with incompetence.
She shifted her typing to just her right hand, reached down with her left to grab the gun she'd set down next to her, and didn't even look away from her computer as she fired behind her to the left.
There was a startled gasp jerked from the D.E.B. who'd thought she was sneaking up on the intruder unaware. Said D.E.B. had just enough time to touch the dart sticking out of her neck, uncomprehending, before the powerful sedative took effect and she collapsed, unconscious.
Kali placed her gun back on the ground next to her and began typing two-handed again. She only had a small amount of time until someone noticed the sudden gap in their patrol cycle, but she was almost done.
A few final keystrokes, and the adjustments she'd been making were completed. She unplugged the computer and put it away, then calmly and methodically set to stripping the D.E.B. of anything useful.
Time for Phase Two.
**********************************************
As Amy had been expecting, the higher-ups had been a bit leery of trusting Lucy, but had accepted that, for whatever reason, she genuinely did want to help bring down The Centre, and the D.E.B.S. could ill afford to turn away such a potentially valuable resource. Perhaps they thought The Centre was cutting into Lucy's business in some way, she didn't know. Or care, really. They'd said yes, that was all that mattered. "Is that all?" she asked, already preparing to leave and get back to her room, back to Lucy, as soon as she was able.
"Not quite," Mister P. said smoothly. "There's one more thing."
She managed to fight off her impatience with the knowledge that any future meetings she had with Lucy, at least for the duration of the mission, wouldn't be questioned. "Yes?"
"Do you think I'm stupid, Amy?"
She blinked, confused. "What? No, of course not."
"Lucy Diamond did not just randomly decide to help her sworn enemies because someone worse came along. There have been other, worse threats in the past that didn't even catch her attention."
"I don't know what you're talking-"
"She decided to help you."
Seemingly confused silence.
Phipps sighed, knowing this wouldn't be easy, either for him to say or for her to hear, but it had to be said. "I'm sure I don't need to remind you of the penalty for fraternizing with the enemy."
"Frat- Sir, what are you talking about?"
'Sir'. Ouch. "Of course, for the duration of this mission, however long that may be, Miss Diamond has been temporarily removed from the 'enemy' column. When that changes, however, I would suggest that you start being a bit more careful, Agent Bradshaw."
"Careful," she repeated slowly, her face giving away precisely nothing. If he hadn't already been sure, he knew he likely would have bought her innocent act completely.
Damn, she was good.
"Several confused, rather panicked reports have placed her on this property on multiple occasions. And your control when she's mentioned isn't as absolute as you seem to think." He sighed again. "You have a very promising career ahead of you, Amy. Don't throw it away by making such rookie mistakes."
She was silent for a long moment, visibly debating something internally. "Permission to speak freely?"
Evidently she was in full 'Centre-mode'. He'd heard enough about the way she and the others had been required to speak to their instructors to recognize it when he saw it. "Of course."
"Don't do this," she said quietly, eyes unreadable.
"Do what?"
"Don't make me choose." She was silent for a moment. "I'm not going anywhere until The Centre is taken down, but after that... If you force me to choose between the D.E.B.S. and Lucy, I can't guarantee I'll pick you."
Dead silence descended over the office.
Two full minutes later, Phipps had worked through his shock enough to regain the power of speech. "It's that serious, then?"
Amy considered, then nodded. "I'd die for her," she said simply.
"Hopefully it won't come to that." He sighed again, much heavier this time. "I'm not going to say anything now. And I hope you understand that the only reason I bring this up is because I'm worried about you. A relationship with Lucy would not be even remotely easy to sustain, even under the best of circumstances."
"I know that," she said, a faint hint of a smile appearing. "And I appreciate your concern, really. But she'd never hurt me. And who knows what may have happened by the time all this is over?"
That was true enough, he had to admit, but expecting that Lucy would manage to completely reform just because she wanted to be with Amy was rather optimistic at best, and would do nothing to make the warrants that were out for her go away. However, he also knew that Amy wouldn't listen to any of that, yet. And she was right: nobody knew what would happen. "Be careful."
That earned him a full smile. "Thank you, I-" a beeping interrupted her, and she pulled a PDA out of a pocket, tapped something, and put it back away. "I'll do that," she finished. "And on that note, I should get back to her." Without another word, she slipped out of the kitchen.
He sighed, then took out the digital audio recorder he'd set up in anticipation of the conversation. Just in case there was a complication in the future caused by a relationship between Amy and Lucy, proof that Amy had been made aware of the situation, warned to stop, and continued on regardless would be very important to the D.E.B.S. It wouldn't really benefit Amy herself, of course, but she'd made it clear that she didn't care, and wouldn't care no matter what happened. So from a legal standpoint, not only was it necessary, it was just common sense.
He punched a few buttons, deleting the entire conversation.
Oops. Too bad he hadn't noticed anything going on in time to talk with Amy about it.
Putting the recorder back in his pocket, he gathered up the few items he'd brought with him and teleported out.
**********************************************
Lucy looked up when Amy reentered the room, an oddly guilty look on her face. Amy felt vaguely suspicious until she noticed the open sketchbook laying across Lucy's lap.
She didn't usually like people looking at her sketches, especially without permission, but somehow, this time she didn't mind. "Hope you weren't waiting too long," she said with a warm smile.
"It wasn't that bad," Lucy replied, glad that Amy wasn't upset with her. "I did manage to find something to keep myself occupied with, after all." She looked down at the drawing the pad was currently open to. It was a fairly new one, she suspected, though she didn't recognize the subject. "You're good," she said in frank admiration.
Amy beamed at her. "Thank you. I'll show you some of the other ones in a minute; I just need to take care of something first." She picked an electronic gadget of some kind off of her desk, set it on a book shelf so it was roughly at eye level, and took a deep breath.
**********************************************
Max felt a little uncomfortable when she went downstairs after Dominique was teleported back to The Centre. Objectively, she knew no one was looking at her any differently. None of them knew what had happened, after all. And she'd never really told anyone, but Dominique wasn't the first girl she'd ever slept with.
Nevertheless, she felt like she had a big scarlet 'L' tattooed on her forehead.
And if she didn't know better, she would have sworn that Janet was avoiding her. Which was just crazy. After all, to do that, Janet would have had to know where she was at all times and have creative ways to get elsewhere without being seen. No, it was obviously just a weird coincidence. It was that her requests for Janet to meet her in the kitchen for a talk seemed to be being ignored that made her suspicious. She walked back into the living room, at first paying no attention to the D.E.B. crossing the room. No one she recognized, but with so many recruited for guard duty, and with some of the lower classmen needing to be rotated out so they could get to class (not everyone was done for the year just yet, after all), it wasn't exactly a surprise.
She froze in mid-step suddenly, head jerking around to study the unknown D.E.B. closer.
It wasn't a surprise, except that she'd taken the time to study the profiles - or at least skim them - of everyone who would be involved, specifically so that nothing like this could happen. "Hey!" she called.
Heads turned in surprise to look at her, but the woman - whose features were either Asian or Indian, Max realized with a chill - was not one of them. "Hey, you! Stop!"
Still not even a hesitation.
"Condition red! Intruder alert!" Max yelled, charging across the room even as the actual D.E.B.S. who were closer to the woman that could only be Kali pulled their guns and tried to restrain her.
It went about as well as one would expect.
Kali seemed to blur out of the way, slapping one girl's gun away while lashing out with a kick that caught the second in the face, laying her out cold. The third she simply shot with her own gun at point-blank range, and Max felt a split second of pure horror before she noticed the dart sticking out of her chest.
What the hell? The unstoppable killing machine was using tranqs?
The one whose gun had been knocked away made the mistake of trying to go hand-to-hand with Kali, who simply grabbed her arm, slammed it down on the railing with a sickening crack, and shoved the screaming girl - Kathleen something-or-other, Max thought - aside to crash into Max, sending them both to the ground.
Max felt a rush of fury, but she forced it down, knowing that it wouldn't do any good with this opponent. But Kali had underestimated them, too.
The energy shield around the house wasn't the only force field that they had. There were also barriers at the top and bottom of the stairs, and additional D.E.B.S. were flooding into the room.
Kali wasn't going anywhere.
A few more D.E.B.S. managed to get between Kali and the staircase anyway, evidently determined to bring her down personally. Kali had put away her tranq gun and pulled out a pair of extendable batons, which slammed into the knee-joint of one, shattered the gun hand of another, and broke someone else's jaw.
It hadn't even been half a minute since Max's initial shout, and already a good six - no, make that seven, she amended as a baton crashed down on a blonde's head - D.E.B.S. had been taken down without so much as inconveniencing Kali. She hadn't really even slowed down all that much in her march for the stairs.
But she wouldn't get any farther then that, Max knew as she got out from under the sobbing Kathleen, got to her feet, and readied her own gun. As soon as she could get a clear shot through the crowd...
She continued thinking that right up until Kali walked through the energy shield like it wasn't even there.
Max's jaw dropped open in astonishment, and she knew she wasn't the only one. Her surprise deepened when a D.E.B. tried to follow her, only to be thrown roughly back by the energy barrier.
The hell with this, she thought, as she and several of the others fired.
Unfortunately for them, the shield was as impenetrable to bullets as it was to unauthorized flesh, and their shots were sent right back at them. Screams and the scent of blood filled the parlor.
Max tried to move over to check on the nearest fallen D.E.B., but something was wrong with her feet. They weren't obeying the orders of her brain properly, and a piercing coldness was starting to spread through her body.
Looking down, she saw that there was a red spot forming on her chest, just below her right shoulder. And it was getting larger.
"Well... fuck," she said clearly, then fell to her knees as the world began swimming.
Idly, as her vision began going black, she wondered if the bitch had even recognized her.
**********************************************
"Do you... hear something out there?" Lucy asked, frowning.
"I doubt it's anything important," Amy said, not even looking up from her sketch book. She'd been a little nervous about showing Lucy this one, given what a good chunk of it had been filled with.
Namely page after page of drawings of Lucy Diamond.
"Are you sure? I could have sworn..."
Amy tapped the face of her watch/communicator. "Trust me, if it was important, someone would have said something."
Lucy shrugged. "If you say so." She looked back at the pad. "So, tell me about this one," she said, gesturing to the drawing of her facing an unknown foe, a look of fierce determination on her face.
Amy grinned. "Ah, that one. I started on it after our very first meeting, you know..."
**********************************************
Janet watched with a growing sense of terror as Kali simply walked through the force field at the top of the stairs, ignoring the weakening screams coming from downstairs. Monica had managed to make it onto the stairs before the shield went up, not quite managing to keep from crying as she yelled out "Kathy!"
Kali had simply shoved her off the stairs, over the railing (evidently, whatever had happened to the shields, they wouldn't even keep them safe from a fall... which was probably intentional, now that she thought about it), off the staircase, to crash onto the table down below, crushing it to splinters. Monica hadn't risen after that.
The worst of it was that it had seemed so casual. Impulsive, even.
There weren't as many guards upstairs, but they took cover behind the various doorways and corners.
Kali put away her batons and took out two guns of her own, expression never wavering.
Screams of pain soon filled the air as D.E.B.S. cradled their broken, bleeding hands, their guns laying discarded and useless. Swift kicks and blows to the head silenced them.
Pressed tightly against a corner, Janet swallowed. Hard. She heard a vaguely interested noise, and realized that it must have come from Kali. It was the first sound she'd made since entering the house, and Janet wondered what had caused it.
A quick peek showed that Kali had found Melissa's Remington M870 Tactical Shotgun.
Janet stifled a moan. Well, great! That was all they needed!
Well, maybe she couldn't beat Kali alone, but she could buy more time for Amy or Lucy to do... well, something! Hopefully, they'd figure something out soon. She peeked back around the corner.
Kali's face was about two inches away.
Janet let out a shriek and rapidly backpedaled, bringing up her gun.
Kali's hands blurred up, and faster then Janet could follow, somehow pulled off the top part of the gun, ejected and caught the clip, and tossed both behind her. She studied Janet carefully.
And gave something that was either a scoff or a very muted laugh.
Janet could feel her cheeks burning, and even though she knew that being disregarded by this woman might let her live, she couldn't just let her go. She was a D.E.B., dammit. She assumed a combat stance.
A flicker of what might have been amusement passed over Kali's face, and she slammed the butt of the shotgun down on Janet's head.
Pain exploded inside her skull, and Janet fell to her knees, barely aware that Kali had moved past her, towards Amy's room. Only Bobby was standing in her way, now.
That, Janet figured muzzily, would take her about five seconds to deal with. If that.
Then the world went black.
**********************************************
Kali had swept past the D.E.B. in the sweater without hesitation. She'd managed a quick look around downstairs before she'd been spotted, and there had been no trace of Diamond or Sekhmet, so they were obviously up here. And given that the guards had been determined to keep her from coming this way, she suspected that they were in the room at the end of the hall.
There was only one person in her way now, what looked like a Homeland Security agent.
Deciding to deal with him as swiftly as possible, she leveled the shotgun and fired.
He was wearing a vest (unlike the D.E.B.S.), so it didn't kill him, but it did drive the wind from his lungs and knock him to the ground, leaving him unable to put up any kind of fight.
Just as she'd planned.
Forcing him to his feet, she held him in place against the wall, the barrel of the shotgun pressed tightly against his neck. "Where are they?" she asked coolly. She did think that she already knew, but confirmation would be helpful.
He didn't answer, looking like he wanted nothing more then to spit in her face. He must have had at least part of a brain in his head, though, as he didn't.
"Are they in there?" she asked, nodding her head toward the room that she suspected housed them.
Stubbornly, he didn't even look in that direction, keeping his eyes fastened on the stairs.
She almost smiled. She could respect that kind of determination and devotion to duty. But frankly, she didn't have time for this, and she did not appreciate people keeping her from doing her job.
So she slammed a knee up between his legs with bone crushing force, then brought the stock of the shotgun down on his head when he bent over.
That taken care of, she proceeded to the room unchallenged. Suspecting that Sekhmet might have taken additional precautions, and not wanting to be blown up or electrocuted, or some such thing, she aimed the shotgun and blew the lock off.
Nothing exploded.
Nothing moved afterwards, either.
Confused, knowing that there was just no way she could have taken down Sekhmet or Diamond that easily, she kicked the door open, dove inside, and rolled up into a kneeling position to face-
-no one at all.
She simply stared at the empty room for a minute, before the computer on Sekhmet's desk lit up, and an image of Sekhmet herself popped up on the screen as Kali got to her feet.
The Sekhmet-recording took a deep breath and began speaking. "Hello, Kali. If you're watching this, it means that you've somehow gotten by every single D.E.B. who happened to be in your way... which wouldn't surprise me at all. It also means that you've noticed, by now, that I'm not there, which would surprise me, because honestly, you should have known better then to think I'd be cowering behind a locked door, letting everyone else fight my battle for me. Frankly, I expected better from you." She shook her head. "Anyway. There's a sketchpad on the bed. Next to that, you'll find the address for where I've gone. We really need to talk, Kali. And I promise, there won't be any tricks. If you still wanna fight after that, you'll be dealing with me. Which is as it should be, don't you think?" The recording stopped, and the computer powered down.
How? How had Sekhmet known she was coming, and evaded her with such ease? Well, it wasn't like she hadn't been told where she could get answers to that, was it? Dropping the now-empty shotgun to the floor, she stepped over to the bed. As promised, there was a slip of paper with an address on it. She picked it up, scanned it, and pocketed it, but her attention was captured by the sketchpad. She remembered well how Sekhmet had forever been using every available scrap of paper to draw on back at The Centre, until Mason had bought the girl her first sketchpad. From then on, she'd been hooked. Why she hadn't just gone to some... art school, or something, as soon as she'd been able, Kali had no idea.
She didn't even notice as she picked up the pad. She was too captivated by the picture that it had been open to. Even a decade later, she could still easily recognize Amaterasu's features. She wondered if Sekhmet had left it open to that page deliberately, trying to send a message. Or just distract her. Flipping through the pad, she found she could easily recognize other familiar faces.
Including her own.
She didn't know why it should surprise her that Sekhmet had drawn her as well as the others, but somehow it did.
She must have stood there staring at the sketchpad for longer then she thought, because she was surprised by the sound of movement near the door. She felt a mild flicker of alarm, which vanished utterly when she saw that it was Sweater Girl, stumbling along, blood trickling from her head wound as she nearly dragged herself towards the bedroom. She seemed equally surprised to find it otherwise empty, which was somewhat reassuring. At least Kali knew she hadn't walked right into a trap.
Though the fact that she evidently could have, if Sekhmet hadn't been so sentimental, was galling.
She debated neutralizing Sweater Girl further, but decided against it. That wasn't why she was there, after all, and despite how stupid it was, she could respect the drive to continue trying to succeed in her mission, no matter what the cost.
And it would have been a waste of effort. The girl couldn't stop her. Without a word, she threw the pad down on the bed, slipped out the window, and was gone.
**********************************************
Amy sat on a crate, sketchpad balanced on her crossed legs, her pencil moving over the surface of the paper as she worked on a new drawing, her face a study of almost zen-like calm.
Lucy, for her part, was just barely managing not to fidget, despite being captivated by seeing the image forming piece by piece in front of her eyes.
"Don't worry, she'll be here soon," Amy said, not looking up.
"How is that supposed to be reassuring?" Lucy asked, tone partially incredulous.
"It'll be over soon."
"Yeah, but in whose favor?" Maddeningly, Amy didn't answer, merely adding a few more lines to the picture. "How do you know when she'll be here, anyway?"
"I got into her head."
Remembering her crash course on Pretenders, Lucy nodded, accepting that. "But what if she got inside yours? What if she knows what you have planned?" Unlike me, she added silently.
"She hasn't. She's too cold, too logical. Emotionally-driven decisions confuse her. Besides, I've changed since I got away from The Centre, a lot more then she seems to have." She paused and looked at her watch. Thirteen seconds. "And I don't think she ever really understood me in the first place." Ten. Seven. "She should be here in about... four, three, two, one..."
At 'zero', there was no sound, no movement, no hint that anything had changed at all. Even so, the hairs on the back of Lucy's neck stood up, and Amy closed and set aside her pad. "Hello, old friend," she said, pitching her voice so that it carried throughout the whole warehouse that they'd driven into. Their hastily "comandeered" car sat nearby, cooling down. She held up her empty hands to show that she wasn't going to be starting a fight. "So... how've you been?"
There was a lengthy pause, then finally a resignedly amused sigh. "Not bad, all things considered," Kali's voice replied, echoing through the huge structure. "A little confused, a little irritated, maybe. And yourself?"
"Well, I've been just a bit bored, sitting here waiting for so for so long." A partial smile. "What? Not going to come out and say hello? I promised there wouldn't be any tricks, and you know I always keep my promises."
Lucy shifted closer. "Uh, Amy...?" she murmured.
"Don't worry," Amy said softly. "She's not going to try and take a shot at you until after she deals with me. I've gotten her curious now, after all. And besides," she added, raising her voice, "we never did get to finish that last match."
A faint sound of amusement. "Indeed we didn't." Kali emerged from behind a stack of boxes, walking silently across the vast open space of the warehouse floor. They must have been between shipments, Amy had decided when they'd first gotten there. "So, how did you know?" Kali asked without preamble.
Amy gave the hint of a smile. "You're not the only one who has noticed the general crapiness of the D.E.B.S. security features."
"Not even close," Lucy muttered.
Amy went on as if she hadn't spoken. "And I know how easy it was for you to hack into the system and alter the settings on the energy shields. I did it myself when I first got there, just to see how hard it was. And I also set up a watchdog program, to alert me in case anyone ever tampered with them, and to tell me where they were doing it from. Once I knew that, it was a simple matter to leave a message for you, grab Lucy, slip out the window and around the house while you were busy trying to get in, borrow a car, and drive here."
"But you couldn't have-" Kali cut herself off, eyes narrowing. "You took some additional precautions, I take it?"
"Just a little program that would include me in the list of authorized personnel, no matter what kind of changes were made," Amy confirmed. "Once I knew you were still around, and why, one of the first things I did was add Lucy's biosignature to the 'safe' list - a list that no one will ever know exists, so don't feel bad that you missed it. The people that designed the thing haven't even noticed anything."
"So I can come and go as I please?" Lucy asked, curious despite the assassin who wanted her dead standing six feet away.
"Only until the system is reset," Amy told her. "Which should be soon."
"It had better be, if they want to get any medical personnel in there," Kali said casually.
Amy sighed, but didn't tense up in surprise or anxiety, as Lucy would have expected. "Yeah, I figured you'd leave a mess behind you."
Kali shrugged. "I didn't kill any of them, though some of them tried to do that to themselves."
"Why are you doing this?" Amy asked suddenly.
"You get a job, you do the job, you know that," Kali said dispassionately. Lucy had to bury a shiver at the lack of, well, anything in the woman's voice, when she spoke about killing her. There was something definitely wrong with her.
She also suddenly had her gun trained on Lucy, who hadn't even seen her take it out. Amy instantly interposed herself between them, her own gun drawn. "Move," Kali said flatly.
"Don't do this," Amy said softly. "Please."
"Sekhmet-"
"Don't call her that!" Lucy snapped, her attempts at moving around Amy thwarted by Amy herself. "Her name is Amy, dammit! Unlike you, she doesn't choose to continue to link herself to The Centre anymore."
Kali's eyes darkened, and Amy could see her finger tightening in the trigger. "No, please!" she begged, throwing her own gun off to the side, to the shock of all present. "I'll go with you. Just... let her live. Please."
"Amy, no!" Lucy exclaimed, horrified.
"I know what I'm doing, Lucy," Amy said quietly, eyes locked on Kali, who looked confused.
"Come with me... where?"
"I'll let you take me back to The Centre. If they get me back, they shouldn't care about Lucy anymore."
"Amy!"
"Quiet!" Lucy rocked back at the snapped rebuke, startled.
"What are you talking about?" Kali asked, looking uncertain. Amy could see the realization trying to creep in, but Kali was doing her best to fight it off.
"They're the ones who hired you," Amy explained, taking several steps closer, a stern look making Lucy stay put. "Lucy broke in, stole some information about us, and now they want her dead."
"No," Kali said, shaking her head so hard that her hair danced around it. "Weddle and I have an understanding. I don't do work for them. Period. And I know all of their shell companies and frontmen, so that they can't try doing an end-run and tricking us."
"And for as much money as they would have offered, would he really have told you about it?"
"I don't believe you."
"This probably isn't even the first time..."
"I SAID I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!" Kali nearly screamed, just barely managing to keep control.
"I've never lied to you before," Amy said solemnly. "And I would not now, not about something this serious. You know that." She winced internally at the look that passed over Kali's face. She knew her former partner didn't have faith in much (aside from herself), and she'd just done her best to shatter what little bit there might have been.
"If that's true..." Kali whispered, wetting her lips.
"Then they're using you," Amy said gently. "Don't let them. Please. You're better then that. Better then them."
"No," Kali said, surprising her. "That's not it. If what you said is true... why volunteer to go back with me? Just so..." Realization spread across her face, followed swiftly what might have been horror, in another time and place. "You LOVE her?!" she demanded, sounding both incredulously horrified and betrayed. "How could you...? You know that love's a weakness! I thought you GOT that, finally! After what happened with Amaterasu... You know better!"
"What happened with Tomoko hurt, badly," Amy agreed, not denying Kali's accusation. She didn't have to turn around to know that Lucy likely had a shocked look on her face following that revelation. Sorry, Baby, she thought. I'll make it up to you later, I promise. "But it wasn't enough to kill my heart. I don't really want to fight you. But the only way you'll be getting at Lucy is over my dead body."
"No. It isn't." They both knew that Kali could step over an unconscious or disabled body just as easily as she could a dead one.
"Oh, if you touch her, you will have to kill me, sooner or later," Amy promised. "But you're not going to. Because I know you well enough to know that you won't want to be The Centre's pawn anymore."
"I am not going to stand here and keep listening to this."
"So what are you going to do?" Tactically, Amy wasn't in the best position. She'd tossed her gun away, while Kali still had hers out and aimed right at her. Yet, Amy still felt a curious sense of peace, because she suddenly knew what Kali's answer would be, and she knew it was the only way things could be. No matter what, this had to happen. Whether it was fate, or just the inevitable result of putting two personalities like theirs together in a situation like the one they now found themselves in, she couldn't say.
But she wasn't at all surprised when Kali tossed aside her own gun and faced her, a hint of a smile on her face. "I believe I will first take care of some unfinished business. You know how much I hate leaving things unresolved."
Amy smiled faintly in response. "Yeah, I do. But if I do win this time, you're going to listen to what I have to say, without interrupting, and you WILL keep an open mind."
Kali raised an eyebrow, but inclined her head in a nod. "Fair enough. But if I win, you realize you won't be in a position to stop me from completing my job here."
"That would have been the case anyway." Because no matter what, Kali would have had to go through her to get to Lucy, and they all knew it.
"All right, then. You've got a deal." They stood about six feet apart, bowed to each other in the proper style, then, on some unspoken signal, simultaneously began moving.
Their initial exchange of blows was eeirely similar, with one throwing a punch, the other blocking or deflecting it, then throwing a punch of her own, which was likewise turned away. They went a bit too fast for Lucy to tell who was doing what at any given moment, and she thought she understood why Amy hadn't wanted her involved. She was good - very good, if she said so herself - but she didn't think she was at that level.
And besides, for Amy, this was personal. Even if it hadn't had anything to do with her at all, Amy still would be doing exactly the same thing. Fighting seemed to be what these two did.
For her part, Kali had to admit to being a little surprised that Sekhmet was so ably keeping up with her - but only a little. She always had been the second-best fighter at the Centre, once she'd finally stopped playing around and gotten serious in her training. Hell, Kali herself had helped train her. And Sekhmet had gotten steadily better over the years, to the point where Kali had to actually work for her victories. Even so, she'd never lost to Sekhmet before, and had no intention of starting now. But it was interesting to see that she hadn't slacked off on her training during her post-Centre years. If anything, she seemed to be doing better now.
But so was Kali. A punch slipped through Amy's defenses to nail her in the face, and a kick to the leg had her fighting off the impulse to start limping, but she returned the favor with a side-kick to the chest that drove the air from Kali's lungs, giving her a chance to recover.
And though neither noticed it, really, they were both smiling. Slightly wild, exultant grins, as they engaged in their primal competition. While Amy didn't like hurting people, she couldn't deny that there was some small part of her that delighted in such combat, and wouldn't even be upset if she lost (if Lucy would still be okay afterwards, anyway). She didn't have words to describe it, and didn't have the time to find them.
They circled each other warily, and Kali's face became closed-off and remote. Amy recognized it as the look she always wore right before she would inevitably crush her opponent, and felt her own face become grim in response. Playtime, it seemed, was over.
And maybe she'd let herself get just a bit psyched out, because she couldn't quite manage to stop a kidney punch, barely deflected a kick to the head, and couldn't at all stop Kali from grabbing her arm and flipping her over her head to crash painfully to the ground, then twisting her arm up behind her back. "You're not going to win this," Kali said softly. It wasn't malicious, she was just stating a fact. "Look, you know I won't drag it out. She won't feel a thing."
She did know that, and on some level she appreciated that Kali didn't want Lucy to suffer. But like she'd told Dominique, she couldn't go through that sort of thing again. Not if she wanted to keep her sanity wholly intact.
***
It would be so easy to just stop fighting, but... There were too many people counting on her.
Max. "Who's your best friend?"
"D.E.B.S. stick together."
"Tell you what... If you think you can stand telling me about the whole thing, I won't say one more word about all the years you didn't."
Janet. "Are you okay?"
Always so ready to lighten up the moment. "I have that sweater."
Dominique. "He should not call her! It is embarrassing!"
"It is a view, a way of life. It is embracing life. As you say, I am a spy. I could easily die tomorrow. So I live in 'today', in the here and now. I enjoy my life because it could end so soon."
Even Scud, god of bingo that he was.
But most of all, there was Lucy.
"You're so not what I expected."
"Well, I think that's a good thing."
Lucy, who had somehow managed to effortlessly slip through her elaborately constructed walls and into her heart. "I am really glad I met you."
"Guess I was aiming at the wrong continent."
"Completely bonkers," she added before Amy tugged off her shirt.
"You really need to stop talking, now," Amy informed her.
She would not... COULD not let Kali harm Lucy.
Someone else's words suddenly came back to her. "You deserve to have a life. And I know you'll find someone to share it with."
You always did know more then anyone gave you credit for, Tomoko, Amy thought as she silently levered herself to her feet, ignoring the burning in her captured arm as she did so.
"You will find someone. I know you don't believe me, but you will. There's so much... goodness inside you, even now."
"I think I finally get what she was trying to tell me, all those years ago," she said quietly, looking down at the floor. She didn't need to look over to know Kali had a look of confusion on her face. "What are you talking about?"
"And when you do... you'll be stronger."
Now she DID look at Kali. "You're wrong. It's not a weakness. It's the greatest strength there is."
And then, just like that, she was suddenly not in Kali's grasp anymore.
Kali barely had time to register the odd stinging sensation in her arm before Amy lashed out with a vicious backhanded strike that caught her on the left cheek and sent her staggering. She managed to block another punch and duck a sweeping kick, but couldn't stop two more strikes to her chest.
For Amy, everything had seemingly crystallized. It was like she could see what Kali was going to do before she did it, allowing her to brush aside the attempted punch-kick-jab combination with ease. If this was how it had always been for Kali, no wonder she'd always won.
And just like that, she finally understood why she'd never been able to beat her, no matter how hard she'd trained. She'd been doing it wrong.
Of course, just because Amy had finally pushed herself up to Kali's level, didn't mean that Kali had gotten any less skilled. They traded punches and kicks for a while, until Amy again managed to send her staggering backward.
She pulled out a knife.
There might have been a shout of protest from Lucy, but Amy didn't hear it, all her attention focused on Kali. She jumped backwards, out of the way of a swing at her stomach, ducked under a slice at her head, landed a quick jab on Kali's chin, and ran over to where they'd left the car, jumping up onto the hood and, coincidently, over an attempt to cut her legs.
She grabbed one of the windshield wipers and cartwheeled sideways off the hood, breaking it off with a snap. On Kali's next thrust with the knife, she trapped it between the wiper blade and the metal backing and spun around, tearing the knife from Kali's grasp and sending it flying. But she didn't stop there, spinning around again to backhand Kali across the face. Blood spurted from her nose, and she fell back into a defensive posture.
She'd never had to fall back before.
And Amy didn't let up, driving her back with punches that numbed her arms (and Amy's own hands), her legs becoming sore and aching from turning aside so many kicks... and they were starting to get through. A kick to the stomach doubled her over in time to catch the follow up right in the face, spinning her around painfully so that by the time she landed on the ground, she was face down. Amy backflipped past her reach, grabbing something off the ground as she did so.
Specifically, the gun she'd thrown away earlier, which is what she'd been herding Kali toward.
She straddled Kali's back, pressing the gun against the back of her skull. Everyone stopped moving, the only sound being the two of them panting for breath.
Amy allowed herself a few seconds of sheer astonishment, as she realized that, for once, she'd actually won.
"Now," she panted out, "you WILL listen!" She inhaled deeply to try and get her breathing under control. "We're the only ones left!" she exclaimed feelingly. "We're the only ones who remember everything. It can't mean nothing. We can't let them just pretend that we didn't exist, that we didn't matter. The others deserve better then that!" She felt tears threaten, and forced them away. "Help us. We're going to take down The Centre. All of them, every single person in their employ. We've been setting it up for years now."
"So what do you need me for?" Kali asked quietly. She had, technically, said she wouldn't ask any questions until Amy was finished, but this one was understandable.
"Because you and I both know that no matter how good a case we make against some of them, their lawyers will manage to insulate them, or they'll flee to countries that we don't have extradition treaties with."
"Why bother arresting them at all?" Kali growled.
"Because if we just killed them all, we'd be no better then them. No, we'd be worse. And besides..." Amy's tone darkened. "I have no intention of letting them off that easily. Once they're dead, that's it. Nothing more can happen to them. They're going to prison, first - federal prison. See how they like being locked away like that."
Kali made a faint sound of approval.
"And, of course, we may need some of them to flip on the bigger fish," Amy added, tone light again. "Besides, some of them don't really have any idea what's going on behind the scenes... and there are a few, rare actual good individuals in there. And I don't think Jarod would forgive us if we just gunned down Sydney."
"Jarod's involved in this?" Kali asked, surprised.
Taking a chance, Amy got to her feet and holstered her gun. Wary, Kali followed suit, noticing that Diamond had collected her gun and had it out, ready to be turned on its owner at a moment's notice.
The irony did not escape her.
"He was in town a few days ago," Amy explained. "He and the Centre team following him served as the catalyst to kick all this off."
"It sounds like you've got everything covered," Kali said, eyes searching her face. "What do you need me for?" she asked again.
Rather then just repeating her earlier answer, Amy simply said, "The Triumvirate."
"Ah."
Lucy quietly cleared her throat. "Um, for those of us that got here late..."
Amy's face was perfectly, utterly neutral. "Like I told you, they're very secretive, making it extremely difficult to figure out exactly where their bases are. But not impossible. Not for one of us. But I can't be everywhere, and they keep too good a watch on Jarod's movements for him to do anything long-term over there. But you..." She fixed Kali with a look that Lucy couldn't interpret. "They don't even know you're still alive." Her expression hardened. "And given how deeply integrated they're likely to be with the governments over there, it may just have to be you that takes care of them."
Kali was silent for a long moment. "It would be a pleasure," she said finally. "I'm in."
Amy let out the breath she hadn't known she was holding. "Thank you, Nayana."
Deciding not to react to Amy using her given name in front of someone else (she had the feeling that the blonde would be telling Diamond just about everything anyway, so it probably didn't really matter), she simply nodded, then gave her an edged smile. "Of course, it seems I have something else to take care of, first. But I'll get on that as soon as I can." Without another word, she turned, snagged her gun away from Diamond before the other woman could even blink, then calmly walked out of the warehouse, determined not to let on how badly she was starting to ache.
Once she got back to her hotel, though, a long, hot bath would be in order.
________________________________________________________________________
And we officially have a new winner for longest chapter EVER in one of my stories. ;) I hope this was worth the wait, and that there was enough action this time around. 8)
Next time - Dominique is summoned to Africa by the Triumvirate, Lucy ponders the future, and the D.E.B.S. pick up the pieces in the wake of Kali's visit.
And just for those who are new to the story and want the pairings up front, here you go: Amy/Lucy, Max/Dominique, Janet/sweater. (Heh, sorry, couldn't resist. ;) But the first two are serious. ^_^)
Title: Pantheon
Author: That'd be me. *grins* Andrew, Obsidian, call me what you want. But only if it's nice. ;)
Rating: R, or MA, whichever you understand better. ^_^
Comments: Obviously, this is an AU, but it'll be a bit more alternate then most, as this fic's Amy has something of a hidden past, which is in the process of shaking quite a number of worlds as it surfaces. And if you thought there was angst in my last fic... *evil chuckle*
Sorry for the extended delay on this chapter, but real life interrupted, with a vengeance. Flooded basement, crappy weather (which knocked out the muse), plenty of work, errands, and now a cold... Well, you get the idea. Hopefully, this will have been worth the wait. As an extra-special treat, I even managed to (finally) find the perfect song for the big Amy-Kali fight. The link to it will be three asterisks (like this - ***), placed about where the music would kick in. Feel free to read it first sans music, if you prefer. :)
And now that I've bored you all to tears, let's move on... ^_^
Legal Disclaimer: I do not own 'D.E.B.S.' That belongs to the fabulously talented Angela Robinson. 'The Pretender' was created by Steven Long Mitchell and Craig W. Van Sickle. (No idea who owns it now, as I don't think it's TNT anymore...)
________________________________________________________________________
Chapter Thirteen
Once inside, Kali hesitated. If there was one thing she hated, it was being made to do a job with minimal intelligence. There were times when it couldn't be avoided, certainly, but doing so always carried with it a better then average chance of dying.
Amaterasu's ultimate fate was proof enough of that.
This would be worse then ever, though, given that Sekhmet was in that house, quite possibly waiting for her. The only thing she had going for her so far in that respect was that there was no way Sekhmet would have expected her to get there as quickly as she did. She should have several more hours, at least, before security really started tightening.
She'd have to make the most of every single minute.
The goggles she'd taken from Diamond's lair proved to be very valuable, showing plaid-colored laser sensors on the lawn. She actually wasted a few moments staring incredulously at them, wondering not only why they bothered giving something invisible a color pattern at all, but why it was plaid. Again.
Somebody high up in the organization, she decided, had some serious problems.
Pulling out a small scanning device, she skirted the edge of the shield, slipping along the boundary of the D.E.B.S.' property until it told her she'd reached her destination. Kneeling down and setting aside the weapon she'd been carrying, being careful not to touch the shield, she scooped handfuls of dirt away from a certain spot at its base until she found what she was looking for.
One of the numerous shield emitters located around the property.
Many would have just destroyed it in order to leave themselves a guaranteed way out, but doing that would just alert the D.E.B.S. to her presence. Planting a virus that would infiltrate, infect, and disable their network sounded better, and would create plenty of confusion that would distract them until it was too late, but that wasn't her aim, either.
Her actual goal would take a bit longer, but would carry less risks, and would be much more educational.
First, she carefully disabled any sensors that might have told them someone was playing around with their shield, then she pried open a panel on the casing and began studying the interior mechanism.
Oh... Well, that's interesting... High-tech devices weren't usually her field, but after one job had forced her to infiltrate a lab in Silicon Valley, as well as The Centre's (now somewhat outdated) training in that respect, she had at least a working idea of some of what she was seeing did. The rest she should be able to deduce without too much trouble. She'd never even heard of circuitry quite like this, though, and the energy flow regulators were marvels of engineering.
Her lips twitched into a smile as she thought to herself that those lab techs back in Silicon Valley would have given their collective left arm for technology like this.
Pulling a palmtop computer out of her pocket, she found an access port, plugged it in, and got to work.
**********************************************
Their meeting was over at last, it seemed, but Janet still couldn't find out what was going on. It was frustrating her to no end, really. Ms. Petrie had gone back to wherever the hell it was that she kept going when she teleported out, while Mr. Phipps was on a conference call with... well, she didn't know who with, but he was obviously too busy to bother. Amy would probably have told her what had been decided, but she was evidently alone in her room with Lucy, and Janet found the idea of interrupting whatever they were doing a little scary.
One of Lucy's guards had said that Amy had looked a little miserable about something, probably having to spend time with Lucy. Knowing what she knew, however, Janet suspected that something Centre-related had been dredged up and Amy had been in need of comfort.
Frankly, that was a feeling Janet knew all too well. She stopped in her room and grabbed one of her favorite sweaters.
Yes, that was much better.
The only other person who could tell her what was happening was Dominique, and no one had seen her since she'd evidently gone into her room a while back. After hearing even the little that she had about The Centre, Janet couldn't blame Dominique for wanting to spend as much time in more familiar surroundings as she could. Even just sitting on her own bed was probably calming, she thought as she opened the door.
And froze. Or doing something completely different on her bed.
Hand still on the doorknob, she stared into the room in open-mouthed shock. She really shouldn't have been so surprised, she told herself. After all, this was Dom. If anything, she should have been surprised that it had taken so long to happen.
It was really the fact that the other person in the bed was Max that had stunned her into immobility.
She shouldn't have been just standing there watching, she knew, but a strange kind of horrified fascination kept her eyes locked on the spectacle in front of her. Probably the same kind that made people stop and gawk at car wrecks. The sight of just so much dark skin, Max's head vanished somewhere inbetween Dominique's thighs, Dominique's own head thrown back in wild abandon-
Knocked out of her stupor, Janet took a jerky step, then another, cheeks burning. She barely remembered in time not to slam the door shut, instead closing it as silently as she could. They didn't seem to have noticed her, and she intended on keeping it that way.
Once safely out in the hallway, however, she shook her head incredulously. "God... Am I the only straight one in this entire house?" she wondered aloud, a vague exasperation coloring her tone.
"Well, I hope not," a voice said from behind her. She turned to see one of the D.E.B.S. recruited for guard duty, Kathleen something-or-other.
Janet almost thanked her before she noticed that dark-haired Kathleen's eyes were wandering up and down her body with a distinctively speculative gleam, a hint of a smile on her face.
With a wordless cry of frustration, Janet stalked away towards the stairs.
Observing the exchange, Kathleen's teammate, Monica, shook her head. "You," she said in her lilting Irish accent, "are terrible."
Kathleen gave her an innocent look for all of five seconds before her grin broke through, and the two started laughing.
**********************************************
After doing nothing but hugging Amy for several minutes - hardly the worst fate in the world - Lucy pulled back and looked in her eyes. "Think you might wanna tell me what's going on now?"
Amy sighed. "Just... talking about my final mission, with Amaterasu."
"Ah." That was something she hadn't heard about yet, but she wasn't about to ask, seeing what it did to Amy. "What brought that up?"
Amy fidgeted. "Max and I were talking to Dominique about her problem," she said finally.
"Problem? As in... singular?"
The combination of her words and deadpan delivery managed to elicit a snorted laugh. "Yeah, well... it's the root problem. Or the main effect of the root problem. I'm not sure, I haven't read any psychiatric texts in a while."
"How does that work, anyway?" Lucy asked. "You just read something, and... know how to do it?"
"What can I say? I'm a very fast learner."
"Don't I know it," she said saucily, and Amy giggled, swatting her on the arm. "Shut up!"
"Hey, I didn't say that was a bad thing!" Lucy replied, grinning. "Quite the opposite, really..."
Just managing not to blush, Amy was actually somewhat relieved when someone knocked on the door. She managed to keep a slow, even pace while she walked over to it, but a muffled snicker from Lucy said that she wasn't entirely convinced. Ignoring that, she opened the door and looked at the guard who'd knocked. "Yes?"
"Mister P. wants to speak with you," she said solemnly.
Amy might have been disturbed by that if she hadn't known that both she and her partner had been acting that way the whole time, to try and impress her with how seriously they were taking things. As it was, she had to struggle to keep from rolling her eyes. She checked her watch, did some quick mental math, then nodded. There was still some time. "I'll be right back," she told Lucy, then slipped out past the guards and down the hall.
The guard stared at Lucy.
Lucy stared back.
The guard opened her mouth to speak.
Lucy cut her off before she could say anything. "Yes, I still have both of my hands - and every other body part, for that matter."
The guard at least had the grace to look mildly abashed as she shut the door wordlessly.
Lucy shook her head, silently willing Amy to hurry.
**********************************************
Some time later, Kali had a working understanding of just how the D.E.B.S. system worked. There was a certain elegance to it, which just made the deficiencies in their security that much more glaring. Anybody with a laser cutter, infrared goggles (or something similar, like what she'd 'borrowed' from Diamond), and the ability to jump or skip could come and go as they pleased. She was actually tempted to rewrite some of their security protocols just so they wouldn't look so sloppy, but thankfully the impulse passed. She didn't need to make things harder for herself just to satisfy her desire to not have to deal with incompetence.
She shifted her typing to just her right hand, reached down with her left to grab the gun she'd set down next to her, and didn't even look away from her computer as she fired behind her to the left.
There was a startled gasp jerked from the D.E.B. who'd thought she was sneaking up on the intruder unaware. Said D.E.B. had just enough time to touch the dart sticking out of her neck, uncomprehending, before the powerful sedative took effect and she collapsed, unconscious.
Kali placed her gun back on the ground next to her and began typing two-handed again. She only had a small amount of time until someone noticed the sudden gap in their patrol cycle, but she was almost done.
A few final keystrokes, and the adjustments she'd been making were completed. She unplugged the computer and put it away, then calmly and methodically set to stripping the D.E.B. of anything useful.
Time for Phase Two.
**********************************************
As Amy had been expecting, the higher-ups had been a bit leery of trusting Lucy, but had accepted that, for whatever reason, she genuinely did want to help bring down The Centre, and the D.E.B.S. could ill afford to turn away such a potentially valuable resource. Perhaps they thought The Centre was cutting into Lucy's business in some way, she didn't know. Or care, really. They'd said yes, that was all that mattered. "Is that all?" she asked, already preparing to leave and get back to her room, back to Lucy, as soon as she was able.
"Not quite," Mister P. said smoothly. "There's one more thing."
She managed to fight off her impatience with the knowledge that any future meetings she had with Lucy, at least for the duration of the mission, wouldn't be questioned. "Yes?"
"Do you think I'm stupid, Amy?"
She blinked, confused. "What? No, of course not."
"Lucy Diamond did not just randomly decide to help her sworn enemies because someone worse came along. There have been other, worse threats in the past that didn't even catch her attention."
"I don't know what you're talking-"
"She decided to help you."
Seemingly confused silence.
Phipps sighed, knowing this wouldn't be easy, either for him to say or for her to hear, but it had to be said. "I'm sure I don't need to remind you of the penalty for fraternizing with the enemy."
"Frat- Sir, what are you talking about?"
'Sir'. Ouch. "Of course, for the duration of this mission, however long that may be, Miss Diamond has been temporarily removed from the 'enemy' column. When that changes, however, I would suggest that you start being a bit more careful, Agent Bradshaw."
"Careful," she repeated slowly, her face giving away precisely nothing. If he hadn't already been sure, he knew he likely would have bought her innocent act completely.
Damn, she was good.
"Several confused, rather panicked reports have placed her on this property on multiple occasions. And your control when she's mentioned isn't as absolute as you seem to think." He sighed again. "You have a very promising career ahead of you, Amy. Don't throw it away by making such rookie mistakes."
She was silent for a long moment, visibly debating something internally. "Permission to speak freely?"
Evidently she was in full 'Centre-mode'. He'd heard enough about the way she and the others had been required to speak to their instructors to recognize it when he saw it. "Of course."
"Don't do this," she said quietly, eyes unreadable.
"Do what?"
"Don't make me choose." She was silent for a moment. "I'm not going anywhere until The Centre is taken down, but after that... If you force me to choose between the D.E.B.S. and Lucy, I can't guarantee I'll pick you."
Dead silence descended over the office.
Two full minutes later, Phipps had worked through his shock enough to regain the power of speech. "It's that serious, then?"
Amy considered, then nodded. "I'd die for her," she said simply.
"Hopefully it won't come to that." He sighed again, much heavier this time. "I'm not going to say anything now. And I hope you understand that the only reason I bring this up is because I'm worried about you. A relationship with Lucy would not be even remotely easy to sustain, even under the best of circumstances."
"I know that," she said, a faint hint of a smile appearing. "And I appreciate your concern, really. But she'd never hurt me. And who knows what may have happened by the time all this is over?"
That was true enough, he had to admit, but expecting that Lucy would manage to completely reform just because she wanted to be with Amy was rather optimistic at best, and would do nothing to make the warrants that were out for her go away. However, he also knew that Amy wouldn't listen to any of that, yet. And she was right: nobody knew what would happen. "Be careful."
That earned him a full smile. "Thank you, I-" a beeping interrupted her, and she pulled a PDA out of a pocket, tapped something, and put it back away. "I'll do that," she finished. "And on that note, I should get back to her." Without another word, she slipped out of the kitchen.
He sighed, then took out the digital audio recorder he'd set up in anticipation of the conversation. Just in case there was a complication in the future caused by a relationship between Amy and Lucy, proof that Amy had been made aware of the situation, warned to stop, and continued on regardless would be very important to the D.E.B.S. It wouldn't really benefit Amy herself, of course, but she'd made it clear that she didn't care, and wouldn't care no matter what happened. So from a legal standpoint, not only was it necessary, it was just common sense.
He punched a few buttons, deleting the entire conversation.
Oops. Too bad he hadn't noticed anything going on in time to talk with Amy about it.
Putting the recorder back in his pocket, he gathered up the few items he'd brought with him and teleported out.
**********************************************
Lucy looked up when Amy reentered the room, an oddly guilty look on her face. Amy felt vaguely suspicious until she noticed the open sketchbook laying across Lucy's lap.
She didn't usually like people looking at her sketches, especially without permission, but somehow, this time she didn't mind. "Hope you weren't waiting too long," she said with a warm smile.
"It wasn't that bad," Lucy replied, glad that Amy wasn't upset with her. "I did manage to find something to keep myself occupied with, after all." She looked down at the drawing the pad was currently open to. It was a fairly new one, she suspected, though she didn't recognize the subject. "You're good," she said in frank admiration.
Amy beamed at her. "Thank you. I'll show you some of the other ones in a minute; I just need to take care of something first." She picked an electronic gadget of some kind off of her desk, set it on a book shelf so it was roughly at eye level, and took a deep breath.
**********************************************
Max felt a little uncomfortable when she went downstairs after Dominique was teleported back to The Centre. Objectively, she knew no one was looking at her any differently. None of them knew what had happened, after all. And she'd never really told anyone, but Dominique wasn't the first girl she'd ever slept with.
Nevertheless, she felt like she had a big scarlet 'L' tattooed on her forehead.
And if she didn't know better, she would have sworn that Janet was avoiding her. Which was just crazy. After all, to do that, Janet would have had to know where she was at all times and have creative ways to get elsewhere without being seen. No, it was obviously just a weird coincidence. It was that her requests for Janet to meet her in the kitchen for a talk seemed to be being ignored that made her suspicious. She walked back into the living room, at first paying no attention to the D.E.B. crossing the room. No one she recognized, but with so many recruited for guard duty, and with some of the lower classmen needing to be rotated out so they could get to class (not everyone was done for the year just yet, after all), it wasn't exactly a surprise.
She froze in mid-step suddenly, head jerking around to study the unknown D.E.B. closer.
It wasn't a surprise, except that she'd taken the time to study the profiles - or at least skim them - of everyone who would be involved, specifically so that nothing like this could happen. "Hey!" she called.
Heads turned in surprise to look at her, but the woman - whose features were either Asian or Indian, Max realized with a chill - was not one of them. "Hey, you! Stop!"
Still not even a hesitation.
"Condition red! Intruder alert!" Max yelled, charging across the room even as the actual D.E.B.S. who were closer to the woman that could only be Kali pulled their guns and tried to restrain her.
It went about as well as one would expect.
Kali seemed to blur out of the way, slapping one girl's gun away while lashing out with a kick that caught the second in the face, laying her out cold. The third she simply shot with her own gun at point-blank range, and Max felt a split second of pure horror before she noticed the dart sticking out of her chest.
What the hell? The unstoppable killing machine was using tranqs?
The one whose gun had been knocked away made the mistake of trying to go hand-to-hand with Kali, who simply grabbed her arm, slammed it down on the railing with a sickening crack, and shoved the screaming girl - Kathleen something-or-other, Max thought - aside to crash into Max, sending them both to the ground.
Max felt a rush of fury, but she forced it down, knowing that it wouldn't do any good with this opponent. But Kali had underestimated them, too.
The energy shield around the house wasn't the only force field that they had. There were also barriers at the top and bottom of the stairs, and additional D.E.B.S. were flooding into the room.
Kali wasn't going anywhere.
A few more D.E.B.S. managed to get between Kali and the staircase anyway, evidently determined to bring her down personally. Kali had put away her tranq gun and pulled out a pair of extendable batons, which slammed into the knee-joint of one, shattered the gun hand of another, and broke someone else's jaw.
It hadn't even been half a minute since Max's initial shout, and already a good six - no, make that seven, she amended as a baton crashed down on a blonde's head - D.E.B.S. had been taken down without so much as inconveniencing Kali. She hadn't really even slowed down all that much in her march for the stairs.
But she wouldn't get any farther then that, Max knew as she got out from under the sobbing Kathleen, got to her feet, and readied her own gun. As soon as she could get a clear shot through the crowd...
She continued thinking that right up until Kali walked through the energy shield like it wasn't even there.
Max's jaw dropped open in astonishment, and she knew she wasn't the only one. Her surprise deepened when a D.E.B. tried to follow her, only to be thrown roughly back by the energy barrier.
The hell with this, she thought, as she and several of the others fired.
Unfortunately for them, the shield was as impenetrable to bullets as it was to unauthorized flesh, and their shots were sent right back at them. Screams and the scent of blood filled the parlor.
Max tried to move over to check on the nearest fallen D.E.B., but something was wrong with her feet. They weren't obeying the orders of her brain properly, and a piercing coldness was starting to spread through her body.
Looking down, she saw that there was a red spot forming on her chest, just below her right shoulder. And it was getting larger.
"Well... fuck," she said clearly, then fell to her knees as the world began swimming.
Idly, as her vision began going black, she wondered if the bitch had even recognized her.
**********************************************
"Do you... hear something out there?" Lucy asked, frowning.
"I doubt it's anything important," Amy said, not even looking up from her sketch book. She'd been a little nervous about showing Lucy this one, given what a good chunk of it had been filled with.
Namely page after page of drawings of Lucy Diamond.
"Are you sure? I could have sworn..."
Amy tapped the face of her watch/communicator. "Trust me, if it was important, someone would have said something."
Lucy shrugged. "If you say so." She looked back at the pad. "So, tell me about this one," she said, gesturing to the drawing of her facing an unknown foe, a look of fierce determination on her face.
Amy grinned. "Ah, that one. I started on it after our very first meeting, you know..."
**********************************************
Janet watched with a growing sense of terror as Kali simply walked through the force field at the top of the stairs, ignoring the weakening screams coming from downstairs. Monica had managed to make it onto the stairs before the shield went up, not quite managing to keep from crying as she yelled out "Kathy!"
Kali had simply shoved her off the stairs, over the railing (evidently, whatever had happened to the shields, they wouldn't even keep them safe from a fall... which was probably intentional, now that she thought about it), off the staircase, to crash onto the table down below, crushing it to splinters. Monica hadn't risen after that.
The worst of it was that it had seemed so casual. Impulsive, even.
There weren't as many guards upstairs, but they took cover behind the various doorways and corners.
Kali put away her batons and took out two guns of her own, expression never wavering.
Screams of pain soon filled the air as D.E.B.S. cradled their broken, bleeding hands, their guns laying discarded and useless. Swift kicks and blows to the head silenced them.
Pressed tightly against a corner, Janet swallowed. Hard. She heard a vaguely interested noise, and realized that it must have come from Kali. It was the first sound she'd made since entering the house, and Janet wondered what had caused it.
A quick peek showed that Kali had found Melissa's Remington M870 Tactical Shotgun.
Janet stifled a moan. Well, great! That was all they needed!
Well, maybe she couldn't beat Kali alone, but she could buy more time for Amy or Lucy to do... well, something! Hopefully, they'd figure something out soon. She peeked back around the corner.
Kali's face was about two inches away.
Janet let out a shriek and rapidly backpedaled, bringing up her gun.
Kali's hands blurred up, and faster then Janet could follow, somehow pulled off the top part of the gun, ejected and caught the clip, and tossed both behind her. She studied Janet carefully.
And gave something that was either a scoff or a very muted laugh.
Janet could feel her cheeks burning, and even though she knew that being disregarded by this woman might let her live, she couldn't just let her go. She was a D.E.B., dammit. She assumed a combat stance.
A flicker of what might have been amusement passed over Kali's face, and she slammed the butt of the shotgun down on Janet's head.
Pain exploded inside her skull, and Janet fell to her knees, barely aware that Kali had moved past her, towards Amy's room. Only Bobby was standing in her way, now.
That, Janet figured muzzily, would take her about five seconds to deal with. If that.
Then the world went black.
**********************************************
Kali had swept past the D.E.B. in the sweater without hesitation. She'd managed a quick look around downstairs before she'd been spotted, and there had been no trace of Diamond or Sekhmet, so they were obviously up here. And given that the guards had been determined to keep her from coming this way, she suspected that they were in the room at the end of the hall.
There was only one person in her way now, what looked like a Homeland Security agent.
Deciding to deal with him as swiftly as possible, she leveled the shotgun and fired.
He was wearing a vest (unlike the D.E.B.S.), so it didn't kill him, but it did drive the wind from his lungs and knock him to the ground, leaving him unable to put up any kind of fight.
Just as she'd planned.
Forcing him to his feet, she held him in place against the wall, the barrel of the shotgun pressed tightly against his neck. "Where are they?" she asked coolly. She did think that she already knew, but confirmation would be helpful.
He didn't answer, looking like he wanted nothing more then to spit in her face. He must have had at least part of a brain in his head, though, as he didn't.
"Are they in there?" she asked, nodding her head toward the room that she suspected housed them.
Stubbornly, he didn't even look in that direction, keeping his eyes fastened on the stairs.
She almost smiled. She could respect that kind of determination and devotion to duty. But frankly, she didn't have time for this, and she did not appreciate people keeping her from doing her job.
So she slammed a knee up between his legs with bone crushing force, then brought the stock of the shotgun down on his head when he bent over.
That taken care of, she proceeded to the room unchallenged. Suspecting that Sekhmet might have taken additional precautions, and not wanting to be blown up or electrocuted, or some such thing, she aimed the shotgun and blew the lock off.
Nothing exploded.
Nothing moved afterwards, either.
Confused, knowing that there was just no way she could have taken down Sekhmet or Diamond that easily, she kicked the door open, dove inside, and rolled up into a kneeling position to face-
-no one at all.
She simply stared at the empty room for a minute, before the computer on Sekhmet's desk lit up, and an image of Sekhmet herself popped up on the screen as Kali got to her feet.
The Sekhmet-recording took a deep breath and began speaking. "Hello, Kali. If you're watching this, it means that you've somehow gotten by every single D.E.B. who happened to be in your way... which wouldn't surprise me at all. It also means that you've noticed, by now, that I'm not there, which would surprise me, because honestly, you should have known better then to think I'd be cowering behind a locked door, letting everyone else fight my battle for me. Frankly, I expected better from you." She shook her head. "Anyway. There's a sketchpad on the bed. Next to that, you'll find the address for where I've gone. We really need to talk, Kali. And I promise, there won't be any tricks. If you still wanna fight after that, you'll be dealing with me. Which is as it should be, don't you think?" The recording stopped, and the computer powered down.
How? How had Sekhmet known she was coming, and evaded her with such ease? Well, it wasn't like she hadn't been told where she could get answers to that, was it? Dropping the now-empty shotgun to the floor, she stepped over to the bed. As promised, there was a slip of paper with an address on it. She picked it up, scanned it, and pocketed it, but her attention was captured by the sketchpad. She remembered well how Sekhmet had forever been using every available scrap of paper to draw on back at The Centre, until Mason had bought the girl her first sketchpad. From then on, she'd been hooked. Why she hadn't just gone to some... art school, or something, as soon as she'd been able, Kali had no idea.
She didn't even notice as she picked up the pad. She was too captivated by the picture that it had been open to. Even a decade later, she could still easily recognize Amaterasu's features. She wondered if Sekhmet had left it open to that page deliberately, trying to send a message. Or just distract her. Flipping through the pad, she found she could easily recognize other familiar faces.
Including her own.
She didn't know why it should surprise her that Sekhmet had drawn her as well as the others, but somehow it did.
She must have stood there staring at the sketchpad for longer then she thought, because she was surprised by the sound of movement near the door. She felt a mild flicker of alarm, which vanished utterly when she saw that it was Sweater Girl, stumbling along, blood trickling from her head wound as she nearly dragged herself towards the bedroom. She seemed equally surprised to find it otherwise empty, which was somewhat reassuring. At least Kali knew she hadn't walked right into a trap.
Though the fact that she evidently could have, if Sekhmet hadn't been so sentimental, was galling.
She debated neutralizing Sweater Girl further, but decided against it. That wasn't why she was there, after all, and despite how stupid it was, she could respect the drive to continue trying to succeed in her mission, no matter what the cost.
And it would have been a waste of effort. The girl couldn't stop her. Without a word, she threw the pad down on the bed, slipped out the window, and was gone.
**********************************************
Amy sat on a crate, sketchpad balanced on her crossed legs, her pencil moving over the surface of the paper as she worked on a new drawing, her face a study of almost zen-like calm.
Lucy, for her part, was just barely managing not to fidget, despite being captivated by seeing the image forming piece by piece in front of her eyes.
"Don't worry, she'll be here soon," Amy said, not looking up.
"How is that supposed to be reassuring?" Lucy asked, tone partially incredulous.
"It'll be over soon."
"Yeah, but in whose favor?" Maddeningly, Amy didn't answer, merely adding a few more lines to the picture. "How do you know when she'll be here, anyway?"
"I got into her head."
Remembering her crash course on Pretenders, Lucy nodded, accepting that. "But what if she got inside yours? What if she knows what you have planned?" Unlike me, she added silently.
"She hasn't. She's too cold, too logical. Emotionally-driven decisions confuse her. Besides, I've changed since I got away from The Centre, a lot more then she seems to have." She paused and looked at her watch. Thirteen seconds. "And I don't think she ever really understood me in the first place." Ten. Seven. "She should be here in about... four, three, two, one..."
At 'zero', there was no sound, no movement, no hint that anything had changed at all. Even so, the hairs on the back of Lucy's neck stood up, and Amy closed and set aside her pad. "Hello, old friend," she said, pitching her voice so that it carried throughout the whole warehouse that they'd driven into. Their hastily "comandeered" car sat nearby, cooling down. She held up her empty hands to show that she wasn't going to be starting a fight. "So... how've you been?"
There was a lengthy pause, then finally a resignedly amused sigh. "Not bad, all things considered," Kali's voice replied, echoing through the huge structure. "A little confused, a little irritated, maybe. And yourself?"
"Well, I've been just a bit bored, sitting here waiting for so for so long." A partial smile. "What? Not going to come out and say hello? I promised there wouldn't be any tricks, and you know I always keep my promises."
Lucy shifted closer. "Uh, Amy...?" she murmured.
"Don't worry," Amy said softly. "She's not going to try and take a shot at you until after she deals with me. I've gotten her curious now, after all. And besides," she added, raising her voice, "we never did get to finish that last match."
A faint sound of amusement. "Indeed we didn't." Kali emerged from behind a stack of boxes, walking silently across the vast open space of the warehouse floor. They must have been between shipments, Amy had decided when they'd first gotten there. "So, how did you know?" Kali asked without preamble.
Amy gave the hint of a smile. "You're not the only one who has noticed the general crapiness of the D.E.B.S. security features."
"Not even close," Lucy muttered.
Amy went on as if she hadn't spoken. "And I know how easy it was for you to hack into the system and alter the settings on the energy shields. I did it myself when I first got there, just to see how hard it was. And I also set up a watchdog program, to alert me in case anyone ever tampered with them, and to tell me where they were doing it from. Once I knew that, it was a simple matter to leave a message for you, grab Lucy, slip out the window and around the house while you were busy trying to get in, borrow a car, and drive here."
"But you couldn't have-" Kali cut herself off, eyes narrowing. "You took some additional precautions, I take it?"
"Just a little program that would include me in the list of authorized personnel, no matter what kind of changes were made," Amy confirmed. "Once I knew you were still around, and why, one of the first things I did was add Lucy's biosignature to the 'safe' list - a list that no one will ever know exists, so don't feel bad that you missed it. The people that designed the thing haven't even noticed anything."
"So I can come and go as I please?" Lucy asked, curious despite the assassin who wanted her dead standing six feet away.
"Only until the system is reset," Amy told her. "Which should be soon."
"It had better be, if they want to get any medical personnel in there," Kali said casually.
Amy sighed, but didn't tense up in surprise or anxiety, as Lucy would have expected. "Yeah, I figured you'd leave a mess behind you."
Kali shrugged. "I didn't kill any of them, though some of them tried to do that to themselves."
"Why are you doing this?" Amy asked suddenly.
"You get a job, you do the job, you know that," Kali said dispassionately. Lucy had to bury a shiver at the lack of, well, anything in the woman's voice, when she spoke about killing her. There was something definitely wrong with her.
She also suddenly had her gun trained on Lucy, who hadn't even seen her take it out. Amy instantly interposed herself between them, her own gun drawn. "Move," Kali said flatly.
"Don't do this," Amy said softly. "Please."
"Sekhmet-"
"Don't call her that!" Lucy snapped, her attempts at moving around Amy thwarted by Amy herself. "Her name is Amy, dammit! Unlike you, she doesn't choose to continue to link herself to The Centre anymore."
Kali's eyes darkened, and Amy could see her finger tightening in the trigger. "No, please!" she begged, throwing her own gun off to the side, to the shock of all present. "I'll go with you. Just... let her live. Please."
"Amy, no!" Lucy exclaimed, horrified.
"I know what I'm doing, Lucy," Amy said quietly, eyes locked on Kali, who looked confused.
"Come with me... where?"
"I'll let you take me back to The Centre. If they get me back, they shouldn't care about Lucy anymore."
"Amy!"
"Quiet!" Lucy rocked back at the snapped rebuke, startled.
"What are you talking about?" Kali asked, looking uncertain. Amy could see the realization trying to creep in, but Kali was doing her best to fight it off.
"They're the ones who hired you," Amy explained, taking several steps closer, a stern look making Lucy stay put. "Lucy broke in, stole some information about us, and now they want her dead."
"No," Kali said, shaking her head so hard that her hair danced around it. "Weddle and I have an understanding. I don't do work for them. Period. And I know all of their shell companies and frontmen, so that they can't try doing an end-run and tricking us."
"And for as much money as they would have offered, would he really have told you about it?"
"I don't believe you."
"This probably isn't even the first time..."
"I SAID I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!" Kali nearly screamed, just barely managing to keep control.
"I've never lied to you before," Amy said solemnly. "And I would not now, not about something this serious. You know that." She winced internally at the look that passed over Kali's face. She knew her former partner didn't have faith in much (aside from herself), and she'd just done her best to shatter what little bit there might have been.
"If that's true..." Kali whispered, wetting her lips.
"Then they're using you," Amy said gently. "Don't let them. Please. You're better then that. Better then them."
"No," Kali said, surprising her. "That's not it. If what you said is true... why volunteer to go back with me? Just so..." Realization spread across her face, followed swiftly what might have been horror, in another time and place. "You LOVE her?!" she demanded, sounding both incredulously horrified and betrayed. "How could you...? You know that love's a weakness! I thought you GOT that, finally! After what happened with Amaterasu... You know better!"
"What happened with Tomoko hurt, badly," Amy agreed, not denying Kali's accusation. She didn't have to turn around to know that Lucy likely had a shocked look on her face following that revelation. Sorry, Baby, she thought. I'll make it up to you later, I promise. "But it wasn't enough to kill my heart. I don't really want to fight you. But the only way you'll be getting at Lucy is over my dead body."
"No. It isn't." They both knew that Kali could step over an unconscious or disabled body just as easily as she could a dead one.
"Oh, if you touch her, you will have to kill me, sooner or later," Amy promised. "But you're not going to. Because I know you well enough to know that you won't want to be The Centre's pawn anymore."
"I am not going to stand here and keep listening to this."
"So what are you going to do?" Tactically, Amy wasn't in the best position. She'd tossed her gun away, while Kali still had hers out and aimed right at her. Yet, Amy still felt a curious sense of peace, because she suddenly knew what Kali's answer would be, and she knew it was the only way things could be. No matter what, this had to happen. Whether it was fate, or just the inevitable result of putting two personalities like theirs together in a situation like the one they now found themselves in, she couldn't say.
But she wasn't at all surprised when Kali tossed aside her own gun and faced her, a hint of a smile on her face. "I believe I will first take care of some unfinished business. You know how much I hate leaving things unresolved."
Amy smiled faintly in response. "Yeah, I do. But if I do win this time, you're going to listen to what I have to say, without interrupting, and you WILL keep an open mind."
Kali raised an eyebrow, but inclined her head in a nod. "Fair enough. But if I win, you realize you won't be in a position to stop me from completing my job here."
"That would have been the case anyway." Because no matter what, Kali would have had to go through her to get to Lucy, and they all knew it.
"All right, then. You've got a deal." They stood about six feet apart, bowed to each other in the proper style, then, on some unspoken signal, simultaneously began moving.
Their initial exchange of blows was eeirely similar, with one throwing a punch, the other blocking or deflecting it, then throwing a punch of her own, which was likewise turned away. They went a bit too fast for Lucy to tell who was doing what at any given moment, and she thought she understood why Amy hadn't wanted her involved. She was good - very good, if she said so herself - but she didn't think she was at that level.
And besides, for Amy, this was personal. Even if it hadn't had anything to do with her at all, Amy still would be doing exactly the same thing. Fighting seemed to be what these two did.
For her part, Kali had to admit to being a little surprised that Sekhmet was so ably keeping up with her - but only a little. She always had been the second-best fighter at the Centre, once she'd finally stopped playing around and gotten serious in her training. Hell, Kali herself had helped train her. And Sekhmet had gotten steadily better over the years, to the point where Kali had to actually work for her victories. Even so, she'd never lost to Sekhmet before, and had no intention of starting now. But it was interesting to see that she hadn't slacked off on her training during her post-Centre years. If anything, she seemed to be doing better now.
But so was Kali. A punch slipped through Amy's defenses to nail her in the face, and a kick to the leg had her fighting off the impulse to start limping, but she returned the favor with a side-kick to the chest that drove the air from Kali's lungs, giving her a chance to recover.
And though neither noticed it, really, they were both smiling. Slightly wild, exultant grins, as they engaged in their primal competition. While Amy didn't like hurting people, she couldn't deny that there was some small part of her that delighted in such combat, and wouldn't even be upset if she lost (if Lucy would still be okay afterwards, anyway). She didn't have words to describe it, and didn't have the time to find them.
They circled each other warily, and Kali's face became closed-off and remote. Amy recognized it as the look she always wore right before she would inevitably crush her opponent, and felt her own face become grim in response. Playtime, it seemed, was over.
And maybe she'd let herself get just a bit psyched out, because she couldn't quite manage to stop a kidney punch, barely deflected a kick to the head, and couldn't at all stop Kali from grabbing her arm and flipping her over her head to crash painfully to the ground, then twisting her arm up behind her back. "You're not going to win this," Kali said softly. It wasn't malicious, she was just stating a fact. "Look, you know I won't drag it out. She won't feel a thing."
She did know that, and on some level she appreciated that Kali didn't want Lucy to suffer. But like she'd told Dominique, she couldn't go through that sort of thing again. Not if she wanted to keep her sanity wholly intact.
***
It would be so easy to just stop fighting, but... There were too many people counting on her.
Max. "Who's your best friend?"
"D.E.B.S. stick together."
"Tell you what... If you think you can stand telling me about the whole thing, I won't say one more word about all the years you didn't."
Janet. "Are you okay?"
Always so ready to lighten up the moment. "I have that sweater."
Dominique. "He should not call her! It is embarrassing!"
"It is a view, a way of life. It is embracing life. As you say, I am a spy. I could easily die tomorrow. So I live in 'today', in the here and now. I enjoy my life because it could end so soon."
Even Scud, god of bingo that he was.
But most of all, there was Lucy.
"You're so not what I expected."
"Well, I think that's a good thing."
Lucy, who had somehow managed to effortlessly slip through her elaborately constructed walls and into her heart. "I am really glad I met you."
"Guess I was aiming at the wrong continent."
"Completely bonkers," she added before Amy tugged off her shirt.
"You really need to stop talking, now," Amy informed her.
She would not... COULD not let Kali harm Lucy.
Someone else's words suddenly came back to her. "You deserve to have a life. And I know you'll find someone to share it with."
You always did know more then anyone gave you credit for, Tomoko, Amy thought as she silently levered herself to her feet, ignoring the burning in her captured arm as she did so.
"You will find someone. I know you don't believe me, but you will. There's so much... goodness inside you, even now."
"I think I finally get what she was trying to tell me, all those years ago," she said quietly, looking down at the floor. She didn't need to look over to know Kali had a look of confusion on her face. "What are you talking about?"
"And when you do... you'll be stronger."
Now she DID look at Kali. "You're wrong. It's not a weakness. It's the greatest strength there is."
And then, just like that, she was suddenly not in Kali's grasp anymore.
Kali barely had time to register the odd stinging sensation in her arm before Amy lashed out with a vicious backhanded strike that caught her on the left cheek and sent her staggering. She managed to block another punch and duck a sweeping kick, but couldn't stop two more strikes to her chest.
For Amy, everything had seemingly crystallized. It was like she could see what Kali was going to do before she did it, allowing her to brush aside the attempted punch-kick-jab combination with ease. If this was how it had always been for Kali, no wonder she'd always won.
And just like that, she finally understood why she'd never been able to beat her, no matter how hard she'd trained. She'd been doing it wrong.
Of course, just because Amy had finally pushed herself up to Kali's level, didn't mean that Kali had gotten any less skilled. They traded punches and kicks for a while, until Amy again managed to send her staggering backward.
She pulled out a knife.
There might have been a shout of protest from Lucy, but Amy didn't hear it, all her attention focused on Kali. She jumped backwards, out of the way of a swing at her stomach, ducked under a slice at her head, landed a quick jab on Kali's chin, and ran over to where they'd left the car, jumping up onto the hood and, coincidently, over an attempt to cut her legs.
She grabbed one of the windshield wipers and cartwheeled sideways off the hood, breaking it off with a snap. On Kali's next thrust with the knife, she trapped it between the wiper blade and the metal backing and spun around, tearing the knife from Kali's grasp and sending it flying. But she didn't stop there, spinning around again to backhand Kali across the face. Blood spurted from her nose, and she fell back into a defensive posture.
She'd never had to fall back before.
And Amy didn't let up, driving her back with punches that numbed her arms (and Amy's own hands), her legs becoming sore and aching from turning aside so many kicks... and they were starting to get through. A kick to the stomach doubled her over in time to catch the follow up right in the face, spinning her around painfully so that by the time she landed on the ground, she was face down. Amy backflipped past her reach, grabbing something off the ground as she did so.
Specifically, the gun she'd thrown away earlier, which is what she'd been herding Kali toward.
She straddled Kali's back, pressing the gun against the back of her skull. Everyone stopped moving, the only sound being the two of them panting for breath.
Amy allowed herself a few seconds of sheer astonishment, as she realized that, for once, she'd actually won.
"Now," she panted out, "you WILL listen!" She inhaled deeply to try and get her breathing under control. "We're the only ones left!" she exclaimed feelingly. "We're the only ones who remember everything. It can't mean nothing. We can't let them just pretend that we didn't exist, that we didn't matter. The others deserve better then that!" She felt tears threaten, and forced them away. "Help us. We're going to take down The Centre. All of them, every single person in their employ. We've been setting it up for years now."
"So what do you need me for?" Kali asked quietly. She had, technically, said she wouldn't ask any questions until Amy was finished, but this one was understandable.
"Because you and I both know that no matter how good a case we make against some of them, their lawyers will manage to insulate them, or they'll flee to countries that we don't have extradition treaties with."
"Why bother arresting them at all?" Kali growled.
"Because if we just killed them all, we'd be no better then them. No, we'd be worse. And besides..." Amy's tone darkened. "I have no intention of letting them off that easily. Once they're dead, that's it. Nothing more can happen to them. They're going to prison, first - federal prison. See how they like being locked away like that."
Kali made a faint sound of approval.
"And, of course, we may need some of them to flip on the bigger fish," Amy added, tone light again. "Besides, some of them don't really have any idea what's going on behind the scenes... and there are a few, rare actual good individuals in there. And I don't think Jarod would forgive us if we just gunned down Sydney."
"Jarod's involved in this?" Kali asked, surprised.
Taking a chance, Amy got to her feet and holstered her gun. Wary, Kali followed suit, noticing that Diamond had collected her gun and had it out, ready to be turned on its owner at a moment's notice.
The irony did not escape her.
"He was in town a few days ago," Amy explained. "He and the Centre team following him served as the catalyst to kick all this off."
"It sounds like you've got everything covered," Kali said, eyes searching her face. "What do you need me for?" she asked again.
Rather then just repeating her earlier answer, Amy simply said, "The Triumvirate."
"Ah."
Lucy quietly cleared her throat. "Um, for those of us that got here late..."
Amy's face was perfectly, utterly neutral. "Like I told you, they're very secretive, making it extremely difficult to figure out exactly where their bases are. But not impossible. Not for one of us. But I can't be everywhere, and they keep too good a watch on Jarod's movements for him to do anything long-term over there. But you..." She fixed Kali with a look that Lucy couldn't interpret. "They don't even know you're still alive." Her expression hardened. "And given how deeply integrated they're likely to be with the governments over there, it may just have to be you that takes care of them."
Kali was silent for a long moment. "It would be a pleasure," she said finally. "I'm in."
Amy let out the breath she hadn't known she was holding. "Thank you, Nayana."
Deciding not to react to Amy using her given name in front of someone else (she had the feeling that the blonde would be telling Diamond just about everything anyway, so it probably didn't really matter), she simply nodded, then gave her an edged smile. "Of course, it seems I have something else to take care of, first. But I'll get on that as soon as I can." Without another word, she turned, snagged her gun away from Diamond before the other woman could even blink, then calmly walked out of the warehouse, determined not to let on how badly she was starting to ache.
Once she got back to her hotel, though, a long, hot bath would be in order.
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And we officially have a new winner for longest chapter EVER in one of my stories. ;) I hope this was worth the wait, and that there was enough action this time around. 8)
Next time - Dominique is summoned to Africa by the Triumvirate, Lucy ponders the future, and the D.E.B.S. pick up the pieces in the wake of Kali's visit.