Pantheon - Chapter Twenty-Five (10/10/2007)
Don't worry, this chapter isn't NEARLY as long as the previous one. :)
Pairings are still Amy/Lucy, Max/Dominique, Monica/Kathleen, Raquel/Kali, and Janet/Scud (I know, a hetero pairing in MY story? I'm shocked, too. *lol*).
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*
On occasion, I feel a bit like I've been skimping on the promised angst. And now that I have another fic going, one which promises to be much more light and fluffy (comparatively speaking, anyway), well, I'll see if I can't throw a bit more in here.
And judging by the distinctly lackluster response to the last chapter's point collection, I guess no one's all that interested in another interlude. Ah, well. Less for me to write. :b
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 Twenty-Five
"The Vatican? The fucking Vatican? Are you kidding me?!"
Amy winced, both at Max's outburst and the memories Athena's latest clue dredged up. "I wish I were. There was this Cardinal, you see. Relatively young. Had a severe crisis of faith and killed himself with poison... officially."
"Why the...?" Max couldn't even get the question out.
She didn't really need to. "We never did find out. But then, that was typically the case. 'Go here, kill this person, using such-and-such methods'... That was the usual story. No idea why, no idea who was behind it, just 'go and kill'. Because if you didn't, or if you failed..." She shuddered. "Being killed in the field would be a mercy."
"But... where in the Vatican?" Janet asked, trying to steer the conversation away from such uncomfortable subjects. "I mean, the place is big. Really big. And there's no way anything from where that guy died would have remained undiscovered this long."
Kali sighed. "Probably in the archives, in the basement. Hell, if Athena actually managed to sneak over there to plant a clue, she may have even given them a hint as to how important it was."
"How did she manage to set all this up, anyway?" Janet asked suddenly. "They kept an eye on you guys all the time, right?"
"There were cameras all over that damned building and we always had a chaperone when on missions, yes," Amy agreed. "But she did get sent out on assignment more and more often as one after another of us died. Obviously she found the time, even if it did take her a while."
"If it took her too long, that may have been enough to tip The Centre off that something wasn't right," Kali suggested.
"Maybe. So... what? We just go in, tell them who we are, and ask if they have anything for us?"
Kali smirked. "Why not? You were always after me to try and be more polite."
"Ah, so that's not a recent development," Max noted, her smile looking strained. She was about to go to the Vatican, for the first time in her entire life, and it was to look for the next piece of a decade-plus old puzzle, the clue to which was the murder of a religious figure by her best friend.
Well, maybe. Amy had never said who actually did it. But still...
This was so fucked up it wasn't funny.
**********************************************
Monica frowned. "What do you mean?"
Raquel was starting to look sorry she'd ever opened her mouth. "Nothing. It's just... Nevermind."
"I don't 'nevermind' well," Monica said gently, placing a hand atop Raquel's, who almost flinched away from her. Concern deepening, she continued, "Hey, this is me."
"I know." That's why this is so hard.
"Why do you think you shouldn't have slept with this person?"
Silence.
"Come on, I promise I won't judge you."
"Yes, you will!" Raquel exploded. Monica reflexively jerked backward.
"Why? Was it... It wasn't Kathleen."
"What? No, of course it wasn't Kathleen. God... No matter what you may think of me, she, at least, would never do that to you, and you know it."
"Well, that would be the only thing that I wouldn't be able to handle," Monica insisted. "So since it's not that, there should be no problem with telling me."
Raquel gave her a dark, bitter laugh. "You don't think so, huh? All right, fine..."
When she didn't continue, Monica prompted, "Well? Is it someone I know?"
"I'm not sure anyone really knows her," Raquel said honestly. "Except maybe Miss 'I can get into people's heads' herself, Amy Bradshaw."
Monica blinked, both at the seemingly aimless hostility in her team leader's voice, and at the 'her'. Well, she was hardly going to object to THAT part, now was she? "What's her name?"
"Her name - her real name - is Nayana."
"I don't-"
"You'd know her better, though, as Kali."
Monica stared, motionless.
"I'm really not sure how it happened," Raquel continued. "Sure, she's really hot, but you know it takes more then that to get to me. I just... There's something about her, something I can't explain, that keeps drawing me in even when I know damn well I should run in the other direction."
Monica continued staring, still not moving. If there'd been crickets in the room, Raquel was certain she would have been able to hear them chirping.
"I actually asked her to help me learn how to fight better, believe it or not, after the big inter-agency meeting. She must have thought making sure there was at least one more competent fighter on the mission was worth it, because she agreed. I did about as well as you'd expect against her. And when tempers began sparking a little, and she told me to take advantage of the element of surprise... Well, I didn't mean for things to keep going, but believe you me, I was hardly complaining."
Still nothing. Raquel was half-tempted to drop a pin, just to see if she could actually hear it.
"I know, I know... A one-time lapse in sanity? Not exactly a good thing, by any definition of the term, but not that terrible either, right? Except remember when I disappeared from that briefing? Well, I was keeping an eye on Kali, all right, but I was doing so in her hotel room."
If this kept up much longer, Monica was going to have to look out for incoming pigeons. "So, yes, Monica," Raquel finished. "I do think I slept with someone I shouldn't have. And probably will again. She is the candle to my moth."
There was almost another whole minute of silence. Finally, Raquel asked, "Are you even awake, or did you fall asleep with your eyes open again?"
"That only happened onc- Hey! Don't change the subject!"
"I wasn't. I was just expecting more of a conversation then a monologue, Miss 'I can handle anything you say'."
Monica's jaw looked tense enough to bite through steel. "If it was anyone else, I might understand," she began.
"Would you?" Raquel interrupted. "I doubt that. Don't think I've forgotten about all those mistaken impressions and arguments that you and Kathleen went through before you finally got together."
"I told you not to change the fucking subject!"
Raquel flinched at the outburst. Monica very rarely ever cursed, and even then only when her 'Irish temper' had finally been roused.
This... was not going to be pleasant.
"Don't you dare even make that comparison! We are nothing like you and that bitch!" Monica was on her feet now, face rapidly becoming as red as her hair. "How could you?! After everything she did? She broke Kathy's arm! Put me in a coma!"
"Not to mention broke Bethany's hand, and damn near cracked my skull open with one of those damned batons of hers," Raquel interrupted, ignoring the roiling of her stomach. "Yes, Monica, I know. I was there, remember? She tore through you, all of you, and I couldn't stop her. I'm supposed to be your leader, but I couldn't even keep you from getting hurt. And then you wouldn't wake up, and Kathy was so miserable, and, and..." She forced herself not to start crying. "And then I start finding myself attracted to her, to the worst possible person I could find, just like in high school, when I knew how horribly that ended, only this is worse, because she's a sociopath, a monster, someone who describes herself as being 'spectacularly fucked up', and I can't stop wanting her, even knowing that, even knowing how you'll all react."
"Well... yeah, that pretty much covers everything I was going to say," Monica said, looking a little confused that Raquel was agreeing with her, even going farther then she would have. She sighed heavily. "I'm not going to pretend to be happy about this," she said finally, not meeting Raquel's eyes. "But I did ask, and I did say you could tell me, even after you warned me not to, so I can hardly complain just because I didn't like your answer." She paused. "I won't tell anyone. But just to make sure things are clear... we are not okay. This isn't something that I can just... accept, right away."
Raquel swallowed. "I understand," she said evenly, mentally willing Monica to leave the room.
"I just... need some time," Monica said, sounding uncomfortable, before she rose and left, shutting the door silently behind her.
Raquel kept it together just long enough to get up, relock the door, and collapse onto her bed. Then she finally permitted herself to start crying as she lay there, feeling miserable and alone.
**********************************************
Why did it have to be here, of all places...? Amy tried not to think about it, but that wasn't really an option just then.
She'd never been overly religious growing up - The Centre was hardly an environment conducive to believing in a benevolent higher power, after all - but this assignment had never sat right with her. In the past, she'd occasionally made up scenarios in which the Cardinal might have deserved it, but... Maybe this particular clue had been meant more for Kali then it had for her. Because Athena had been a lot of things, but cruel wasn't one of them.
She and Kali were trailing along behind a priest as they walked through the basement archives. It had taken a little while to find someone they could explain the situation to - Amy had ended up doing most of the talking, which had seemed to suit Kali just fine - but eventually they'd managed to make themselves understood, and learned that someone matching Athena's description had, indeed, left a package in their care which was meant for either of her two younger 'sisters'.
Max still hadn't looked happy (and Janet seemed terrified she might break something or offend someone), so Amy had suggested they 'go and say hi to the Pope, or something'. That idea, at least, Max had seemed to like.
Trying to find something else to focus on, she quietly said to Kali, "Look, about before..."
Kali gave her a sideways look. "What?" Their guide didn't seem to speak English, true, but was this really the time or place to have that conversation?
Amy seemed to think that it was. "I shouldn't have said what I did. At least, not the way I said it. I don't know exactly what's going on in your relationship-"
"We don't have a relationship."
"Does she know that?"
"We've had sex a couple of times. That's it." And while Kali didn't quite believe in God, she did at least have enough respect for where she was to avoid using profanity. "She doesn't strike me as stupid enough to automatically presume a deeper relationship exists because of that."
"She isn't, but that doesn't mean she won't want one. Based on what I know about Raquel, she doesn't usually engage in purely physical relationships. I'm not sure she can. From what I've heard, it's gotten her more then her share of heartbreak in the past, too. So maybe she knows what you want, and maybe she even thinks she can give it to you, but she will inevitably try to form connections, to make it emotional." She paused. "Actually, now that I think about it, she might be good for you."
"Really?" To say that Kali was skeptical would be putting it mildly. "After what I did to her and her friends, not to mention knowing who and what I am?"
"As a wise friend of mine told me once, 'you cannot decide matters of the heart'. You don't seem to see it, but she's already well on her way to falling for you."
"Why?"
"Perhaps because she can tell there's more to you then you usually let on."
She sighed. Heavily. "Don't start that again."
Amy shook her head. "Is it really so terrible, being with her? Spending time with someone who doesn't want anything from you beyond your company?"
"I'm not you, Amy. I don't form connections, I don't have friends, and I don't need them. And once we take down The Centre, I'm gone." And no matter what Amy thought, or hoped, she was hardly going to care when she left Raquel behind. If she really needed to give vent to her body's desires, she could find someone else easily enough. "Or would you want her to run away from the DEBS to join me in whatever I end up doing afterwards? Because I certainly wouldn't be able to stay here. You think she'd be a good assassin?"
"All I'm saying is that you should talk to her about this when you get back, if only to make absolutely sure you're both on the same page. Because she may not want to let you go."
"She will if she knows what's good for her," Kali said flatly.
"I think the point I've been trying to make is that she may not," Amy said as they drew to a stop in front of a crate. The priest opened it, reached inside, and withdrew a manila envelope. It had been a while since Amy had needed to speak in Italian, but it was such a lovely language. According to the priest, this was all the woman had left with them.
"Grazie, signore," she told him, taking it from him. It was surprisingly heavy, and the shape of whatever it contained was curiously familiar. They headed back to meet up with the others.
"Not going to open it, yet?" Kali asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I think we should wait for Max and Janet."
"Why?"
Amy looked at her, but there wasn't any scorn in Kali's voice. She seemed to be genuinely confused, not understanding what they could possibly need the two DEBS for. "Because we're on the same team. They're a part of this mission, too, so we're going to do this right."
"Whatever."
Amy's comm chirped. Not minding the interruption, she opened the channel. "Yes?"
"Amy?" Raquel's voice asked.
"Yes," she said again, peering critically at the 'watch' face. Raquel's voice was purely professional, but redness around her eyes showed that things may not have been utterly harmonious at home.
"You just got a message. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have read it, but backtracking the source revealed it came from The Centre."
Amy's (relatively) peaceful of moments before crashed and burned. "What did they want?"
"Well... I'm not entirely sure. It referenced the break-in of that vault in Montana, mentioned some kind of project - there's a code number here that I ran by Jarod, but he hasn't come up with anything, yet - and it says for you to stay away. Both of you."
"To stay away from... what?"
"From Project KR-117-OE-SL27, apparently."
Amy frowned. SL-27 was the sub-level that The Centre had based its "nonexistent" work in, such as Angelo... and the Pantheon project. Her frown deepened as she remembered that the first room she'd been taken to (as she'd later learned) had euphemistically been named 'Observation and Encouragement'. And hadn't 117 been the number of the common room?
She stopped dead in her tracks, forcing Kali and the priest to stop with her. Sheet white, she whispered, "They're going to do it again."
"What?" Raquel asked, obviously not having quite heard her.
"They're going to do it again," she repeated, louder. To Raquel, she said, "I want you to get in touch with Dominique. Have her find out everything she can about this. I need more information."
"We're trying to get through to her right now."
"Good. Because there is no way I'm going to let them do to someone else what they did to us. No. Way."
**********************************************
She didn't have much time, she knew. Seeing 'Diabolique' storm through The Centre as she had was bound to get some people talking, and she'd learned that gossip could spread throughout the building at a speed that was practically supersonic.
She hadn't gone to her own 'office', though, since she'd doubted what she'd wanted would be there. She had instead gone to what had used to be Raines' office, and wanted to find what she was looking for before someone came to ask what she was doing.
If only this was something Parker and her team might know about, things would be so much easier. Broots, she knew, would tell her immediately, as he was afraid of her. But then, he was afraid of a lot of things...
Still, though, as it was unlikely that whatever The Centre had contacted Amy about was something Parker would want to keep hidden, she wouldn't have ordered Broots to keep quiet - perhaps the one thing that would, to him, override even her.
The annoying thing was that Raines kept most of his documents in hard copy form, which had her looking through drawer after drawer of papers. Amy seemed to think that it had something to do with the Pretender program, which had at least narrowed the search somewhat.
Personally, she wondered why they didn't just abandon the whole thing entirely. Even to her, it was obvious that it was just more trouble for them then it was worth.
She'd gotten so used to not finding what she was looking for that she almost flipped right by it. Going back, she pulled the file and took it to Raines' old desk, sitting down.
Kristin Rhodes, age fourteen, attending junior high school in Tiffin, Ohio. Five-foot-three, short blonde hair, blue eyes. She took a nice picture, Dominique noted absently. She also got good grades.
Very good, in fact. The file informed her that Kristin had a lot of friends, participated in a number of after-school activities, and was an avid drama fan. She seemed to be a natural actress, able to understand her character's motivations so well that she all but became that person.
Dominique felt a chill race down her spine as she closed the file. Amy was right. They had identified another pretender, this one apparently completely untrained... and wanted to correct that.
She quickly rose to her feet and left the office. She had to get to somewhere that didn't have any cameras so that she could send the DEBS this file, but she also had to do it in a manner that wouldn't arouse suspicion. It was - thankfully - too early in the day for her to leave with a man, not that she wanted to (a realization that always surprised her, for some reason). Perhaps she could claim that she'd gotten a call from the Triumvirate and had to go somewhere? No, they might check the phone logs.
Or she could say she needed to go call them, and wanted to do it from somewhere secure, which Lucy Diamond had shown that The Centre was not. Yes, that would work. It would give her the perfect excuse while letting her get in a dig at them.
Hopefully, Amy would have an idea about what to do with this.
Because she certainly didn't.
**********************************************
"Would you mind going on ahead to tell Max and Janet about this?" Amy asked quietly. "I have a few more questions for Raquel."
"Why not just call her back later, then?"
Amy indicated the priest with her eyes. Kali looked like she wanted to roll her eyes, but politely asked the priest if he could escort her back to their friends. Oh, Amy would catch up, she assured him.
It likely wouldn't have worked quite as well if they'd reversed roles, but clearly the thought of someone as nice and polite as Amy being up to something just didn't make any sense to him, so he readily agreed.
Once they were out of earshot, Amy raised the comm back to face level. "You still there?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
Amy smiled. "Calm down, Raquel, it's just me. I wanted to apologize for before."
"...do we have to talk about that?"
Oh, boy. "I take it you told someone?"
"Monica."
And clearly it hadn't gone over well. "This is something that the two of you really need to talk about yourselves, but... how DO you feel about Nayana?"
Raquel clearly hadn't missed her using Kali's real name. "I... don't know. I mean, obviously I'm attracted to her - to a stupid degree, really - but... well, she scares me, frankly. But there's something... I don't know, exactly. I mean, I know I shouldn't want to be with her, but I do."
"That 'something' would probably be Nayana, herself. Most of the world just sees Kali, which is kind of the way she likes it. But buried deep down - way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaay deep down - there's a part of her there's a part of her that The Centre didn't manage to kill, that still feels and cares... and hurts. She is a real person, with real thoughts and feelings. And not to give you false hope, but I've never known her to give priority to her body's physical needs. And if she did just need a release, she probably would have just chosen some random guy, much as Dominique is famous for doing. I'm not sure what you did, but something about you seems to have piqued her interest."
Raquel was silent for long enough that Amy had nearly caught up with the others by the time she answered. "I'll... keep that in mind." She hung up then, evidently worried that Amy might try and have her talk to Kali right then, and not feeling ready for that.
That was fine by Amy. As much as she might have liked to just set aside a few hours and work out her friends' assorted romantic difficulties, they were on a mission.
"Everything settled?" Kali asked once she'd joined them in the lavishly decorated waiting room. Amy was a little regretful that she hadn't gotten to take a proper tour. Perhaps she'd come back some day for a personal, rather then official, visit.
She also hadn't missed the subtle meaning to the question. "I suppose we'll have to see," she replied, making it clear who had to make the next move.
"So, what's in the envelope?" Max asked. She certainly seemed to be in a much better mood then she had when they'd arrived. Amy decided not to mention it, not wanting to undo any progress she'd made.
"Let's see, shall we?" She opened the envelope, and pulled out the sole object it contained. She gave a vaguely incredulous, almost inaudible laugh. "I'd wondered where this had gotten off to," she said softly.
"What?" Janet asked. She knew what it was, of course. Anyone who hung around Amy long enough would. She just didn't understand the significance of that one.
Amy gently traced a finger over the cover of the sketchbook almost reverently. "This was the first one I ever had," she remarked, almost seeming to be talking to herself. "Doctor Mason gave it to me." She carefully opened it and started slowly flipping through her old drawings. They weren't exactly of the same quality she produced now, part of her noted clinically, but anyone would have recognized them as hers.
And she recognized the subjects, too. Each and every child in the Pantheon project had been immortalized on paper, including herself. She'd gone to a little difficulty finding a mirror so that she could sketch herself properly, but she'd wanted to make sure that everyone was in there.
She permitted herself to linger on Amaterasu's picture before continuing on. Finally, she reached the end, which told her exactly why it had been left as a clue. Unable to help it, she started to chuckle.
"What's so funny?" Max demanded.
Still chuckling, she turned the book around so that they could read the message written there. "Looks like I'm going to art school, after all."
**********************************************
"Holy crap," Janet said as she looked around the grounds of the school.
"You should see it in the day time," Amy told her. That was the only downside to globe hopping the way they were doing it - different time zones.
The Villanueva School of the Arts was every bit as beautiful as she remembered it, if not more so. Night muted the colors of the flowers and made it harder to pick out the Mediterranean sea, but she found that evenings in Barcelona were also breathtaking. For the first time in a while, she felt a pang of resentment towards her job for keeping her from this.
But if she lived long enough to retire, she certainly knew where she'd be doing it.
"I'll bet," Janet replied, looking awed. "No wonder you love this place. I can't even draw stick figures well, and I kind of want to go to school here."
Amy couldn't help but laugh at that. Even as she did, though, she noticed Max shift uncomfortably. No doubt she was remembering bring up the possibility of taking time off after graduation, and her mercilessly shooting that idea down.
Amy felt no real impulse to reassure her that she didn't mind.
"Well, since you're the only one who's ever been here before, I'm guessing you must have an idea of where to go to get the next piece of the puzzle," Kali said.
"Hmm." That was actually a good point. The one time she'd been here had been after Athena was killed, after all, so there was hardly any kind of shared memory for her to draw upon. What might Athena have thought would catch her attention? That it was the same art school she'd fallen in love with all those years ago was just a coincidence, she knew, but still... Athena had obviously been there at some point and known enough about how 'Sekhmet' felt that she could have made an educated guess.
What had she loved most about this place, that would also conceal a hidden message for so many years?
The fountain.
It just had to be. Moderately sized, it was designed so that the water fell back to earth in a complex yet somehow also simple pattern, and she'd known even then that she could have happily sat there for hours making sketches of it, or just listening to the soothing sound of the water as she drew something else, or read, or just... sat. "I think I know."
Silently hoping that they wouldn't be discovered by security, she lead them down the path that she remembered lead right to the fountain. It was in the center of the courtyard, and deservedly so. The others might not have appreciated it the way she did - such amazing lines, and patterns, and dimensions - but clearly they had at least a crude grasp of how lovely it was. Even Kali.
Guess she was right, way back when. I am an art snob, she thought, amused at herself.
Finding what they were looking for proved to be something of a challenge, since they could hardly go dismantling the fountain in search of clues. They spread out in a pattern, eventually reaching the very edges of the courtyard, but came up empty.
Amy was just starting to wonder if maybe she hadn't gotten it wrong when Janet, standing near her, happened to shine her light down on the bench in front of them.
Carved into the stone was the simple message Just because no one sees the sun through the fog, that doesn't mean it isn't there.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she wondered aloud. It was obviously Athena's handwriting - handcarving? - but she didn't understand the reference.
"You're asking me?" Janet shot back.
"I'm not..." Kali said, slowly. "It sounds... vaguely familiar, but I can't place it. Maybe if I go back and look through some of the DSAs, it'll jog my memory."
"Sounds like a plan," Max decided, preparing to signal for their beam out.
"Can I just... have a few minutes?" Amy requested, tentatively. At their inquisitive looks, she gestured almost sheepishly toward the fountain. "Last time I was here, I never got a chance to..." She shrugged. "You know."
After a few moments of silence, Max softly said, "I think we can spare a few minutes."
Amy gave her a grateful smile. It didn't exactly make up for so completely dismissing her dream, she decided as she sat down, fished out a pencil, and turned to the sole blank page left in her old sketchbook as she started to draw.
But it was a start.
**********************************************
After Amy had finished, they had beamed back to the academy. While Kali and Amy - the mystery of Athena's latest message beginning to irritate her - went off to view the DSAs, Janet announced she wanted to go buy a new sweater. Since Max had never known her to ever return from a shopping trip with A sweater before, she wasn't expecting her back for a while.
Lacking anything better to do, she'd gone back to their house, hoping that maybe a little peace and quiet would help her decompress, and process everything. It had, after all, been a fairly eventful day.
No sooner had she gotten inside her bedroom, however, then that plan was shot to hell by a pair of hungry lips fastening to hers as the momentum of the warm body in front of her propelled them her backwards into her door.
She didn't even need to turn on the light to see who it was (though she did do so in order to keep from tripping over anything later), as she recognized the kiss. The intensity of it was a bit more urgent then it had ever been in the past, though. "What... are you... doing... here?" she asked during sporadic breaks for air.
"Zey brought me back so I could tell zem everything I knew about ze file," Dominique told her, all but tearing Max's clothes off in her haste to get them off her. "I decided to spend ze night here. My calls will be forwarded from ze house in Blue Cove."
"Oh. Good." Honestly, though, she barely cared. She hadn't quite realized just how much she'd been missing Dominique. She'd probably been a bit more tense with her team then she might have otherwise, even with Amy's revelation about her (possible) initial visit to the Vatican.
Time seemed to blur by, a rush of touch, of taste, of feeling. Even when she lay next to Dominique in her bed, worn out, she got the sense that the French girl could have kept going. It was as if every sexual impulse she'd had to deny while away were all trying to come out at once. "Dom," she finally gasped as she tried to regain her breath. "Stop. Can we... can we just talk, a minute?"
"Of course." Because she didn't want Max to pass out on her... yet. "What do you wish to talk about?"
Right. This had been her idea, hadn't it? "Well... about last time," she said finally.
"Ah." She didn't need to ask what Max was talking about. "I will admit, I was... confused."
"I know. And I'm sorry about that. But you weren't the only one."
"I am... also sorry."
Max frowned in confusion. "For what?"
Dominique looked uncomfortable, her eyes locked on nothing in particular on the other side of the room. "I know I did not... perform adequately."
"What are you talking about?"
Why did she have to drag this out? "What you were doing... I did not understand it. So I could not properly return it. I..."
"Dom, look at me." Dominique kept stubbornly looking elsewhere. "Look at me," Max insisted, gently taking her by the chin and turning her face until they locked eyes. "You did not do anything wrong. There wasn't any way you could have known what I was doing, after all. I didn't even know. I just... Something was different."
Still looking in Dominique's eyes, she continued, "I don't feel right when you're not here, anymore. So much of what I think or feel seems to revolve around you, now. I'm constantly wondering what you're doing, or thinking, or if everything's going all right for you at The Centre."
"I... cannot do my job as I have in the past anymore," Dominique replied, shakily. "Even if only to gather information, the thought of being with someone else makes me feel physically ill."
It may not have been the reaction she was expecting, but she was relieved when Max smiled. "Quite the pair we make, huh?"
"Oui."
All at once, it hit her. She could practically hear Amy's voice in her mind, pushing her toward that final realization. "I think I love you."
Dominique's eyes widened in shock.
"I know, I know, you probably get that all the time, but-"
"No," Dominique interrupted. "I do not. I cannot recall the last time someone said that to me." Not even her family, which wasn't something she felt like discussing just then. "I am afraid... I have no reference for such a feeling. But... I..."
Max, seeing Dominique struggle to express herself clearly, placed a finger on her lips, silencing her. "It's all right," she said warmly. "You don't have to say anything. And I'll do my very best to show you what love means."
"...merci."
There was a knock at the door, startling them. "Are you two decent?" called Amy's amused voice.
"Not exactly, no," Max replied, smirking. "Will that stop you?"
"Ordinarily, yes, as you well know. But if you're inviting me in..."
Dominique raised an eyebrow, as if asking how far she intended on taking this. Max just gave her a grin. She never had been one to back down. "Well, obviously we don't have anything you've never seen before. If you don't feel like waiting the few seconds it would take us to get dressed, come on in."
There was a pause, then Amy swung the door open. "Somehow, I think it might take longer then that," she remarked, observing the clothing scattered all over the floor. Helpfully, she moved around, collecting various items and tossing them to the pair in bed. "Kali thinks she's getting close to figuring out the clue," she said. "And apparently I got another message from The Centre while I was out. I haven't had a chance to go read it yet, though." She paused. "And don't worry. After growing up the way I did, seeing other girls dress or undress doesn't bother me. We didn't exactly each have our own showers, after all."
And that was true. But it didn't mean she didn't steal an occasional glimpse of Max and Dom while they got dressed.
She was suddenly reminded of why she'd been a little attracted to Max when they'd first met. And Dom...
She did her best not to look at Dom more then was absolutely necessary.
She would have loved to ask what they'd been talking about that had gotten Max so relaxed she didn't even mind her walking in on them, but knew it wouldn't be a good idea so soon.
They were met at the academy proper by Kathleen, who looked very anxious. "Remember how you told us to keep investigating what they were up to?" she asked.
"Yes," Amy said as she accepted the printout of the email.
"I don't think they appreciated it."
No, Amy saw as she read and reread the message. No, they didn't. She swung a fist sideways at the wall, and flakes of plaster drifted down. She didn't even notice the pain, guilt and anger too busy warring for dominance in her head.
Anger seemed to be winning.
"What? What is it?" Max asked, concerned. Amy handed her the paper even as she spat out three very coldly angry, very horrible words.
"They've taken Janet."
Well, hopefully with my other story, the wait for this chapter wasn't too terrible. :)
Next time - Amy is forced to choose between saving the new Pretender and rescuing Janet, while Kali finds the missing piece of Athena's puzzle.
Pairings are still Amy/Lucy, Max/Dominique, Monica/Kathleen, Raquel/Kali, and Janet/Scud (I know, a hetero pairing in MY story? I'm shocked, too. *lol*).
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*
On occasion, I feel a bit like I've been skimping on the promised angst. And now that I have another fic going, one which promises to be much more light and fluffy (comparatively speaking, anyway), well, I'll see if I can't throw a bit more in here.
And judging by the distinctly lackluster response to the last chapter's point collection, I guess no one's all that interested in another interlude. Ah, well. Less for me to write. :b
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 Twenty-Five
"The Vatican? The fucking Vatican? Are you kidding me?!"
Amy winced, both at Max's outburst and the memories Athena's latest clue dredged up. "I wish I were. There was this Cardinal, you see. Relatively young. Had a severe crisis of faith and killed himself with poison... officially."
"Why the...?" Max couldn't even get the question out.
She didn't really need to. "We never did find out. But then, that was typically the case. 'Go here, kill this person, using such-and-such methods'... That was the usual story. No idea why, no idea who was behind it, just 'go and kill'. Because if you didn't, or if you failed..." She shuddered. "Being killed in the field would be a mercy."
"But... where in the Vatican?" Janet asked, trying to steer the conversation away from such uncomfortable subjects. "I mean, the place is big. Really big. And there's no way anything from where that guy died would have remained undiscovered this long."
Kali sighed. "Probably in the archives, in the basement. Hell, if Athena actually managed to sneak over there to plant a clue, she may have even given them a hint as to how important it was."
"How did she manage to set all this up, anyway?" Janet asked suddenly. "They kept an eye on you guys all the time, right?"
"There were cameras all over that damned building and we always had a chaperone when on missions, yes," Amy agreed. "But she did get sent out on assignment more and more often as one after another of us died. Obviously she found the time, even if it did take her a while."
"If it took her too long, that may have been enough to tip The Centre off that something wasn't right," Kali suggested.
"Maybe. So... what? We just go in, tell them who we are, and ask if they have anything for us?"
Kali smirked. "Why not? You were always after me to try and be more polite."
"Ah, so that's not a recent development," Max noted, her smile looking strained. She was about to go to the Vatican, for the first time in her entire life, and it was to look for the next piece of a decade-plus old puzzle, the clue to which was the murder of a religious figure by her best friend.
Well, maybe. Amy had never said who actually did it. But still...
This was so fucked up it wasn't funny.
**********************************************
Monica frowned. "What do you mean?"
Raquel was starting to look sorry she'd ever opened her mouth. "Nothing. It's just... Nevermind."
"I don't 'nevermind' well," Monica said gently, placing a hand atop Raquel's, who almost flinched away from her. Concern deepening, she continued, "Hey, this is me."
"I know." That's why this is so hard.
"Why do you think you shouldn't have slept with this person?"
Silence.
"Come on, I promise I won't judge you."
"Yes, you will!" Raquel exploded. Monica reflexively jerked backward.
"Why? Was it... It wasn't Kathleen."
"What? No, of course it wasn't Kathleen. God... No matter what you may think of me, she, at least, would never do that to you, and you know it."
"Well, that would be the only thing that I wouldn't be able to handle," Monica insisted. "So since it's not that, there should be no problem with telling me."
Raquel gave her a dark, bitter laugh. "You don't think so, huh? All right, fine..."
When she didn't continue, Monica prompted, "Well? Is it someone I know?"
"I'm not sure anyone really knows her," Raquel said honestly. "Except maybe Miss 'I can get into people's heads' herself, Amy Bradshaw."
Monica blinked, both at the seemingly aimless hostility in her team leader's voice, and at the 'her'. Well, she was hardly going to object to THAT part, now was she? "What's her name?"
"Her name - her real name - is Nayana."
"I don't-"
"You'd know her better, though, as Kali."
Monica stared, motionless.
"I'm really not sure how it happened," Raquel continued. "Sure, she's really hot, but you know it takes more then that to get to me. I just... There's something about her, something I can't explain, that keeps drawing me in even when I know damn well I should run in the other direction."
Monica continued staring, still not moving. If there'd been crickets in the room, Raquel was certain she would have been able to hear them chirping.
"I actually asked her to help me learn how to fight better, believe it or not, after the big inter-agency meeting. She must have thought making sure there was at least one more competent fighter on the mission was worth it, because she agreed. I did about as well as you'd expect against her. And when tempers began sparking a little, and she told me to take advantage of the element of surprise... Well, I didn't mean for things to keep going, but believe you me, I was hardly complaining."
Still nothing. Raquel was half-tempted to drop a pin, just to see if she could actually hear it.
"I know, I know... A one-time lapse in sanity? Not exactly a good thing, by any definition of the term, but not that terrible either, right? Except remember when I disappeared from that briefing? Well, I was keeping an eye on Kali, all right, but I was doing so in her hotel room."
If this kept up much longer, Monica was going to have to look out for incoming pigeons. "So, yes, Monica," Raquel finished. "I do think I slept with someone I shouldn't have. And probably will again. She is the candle to my moth."
There was almost another whole minute of silence. Finally, Raquel asked, "Are you even awake, or did you fall asleep with your eyes open again?"
"That only happened onc- Hey! Don't change the subject!"
"I wasn't. I was just expecting more of a conversation then a monologue, Miss 'I can handle anything you say'."
Monica's jaw looked tense enough to bite through steel. "If it was anyone else, I might understand," she began.
"Would you?" Raquel interrupted. "I doubt that. Don't think I've forgotten about all those mistaken impressions and arguments that you and Kathleen went through before you finally got together."
"I told you not to change the fucking subject!"
Raquel flinched at the outburst. Monica very rarely ever cursed, and even then only when her 'Irish temper' had finally been roused.
This... was not going to be pleasant.
"Don't you dare even make that comparison! We are nothing like you and that bitch!" Monica was on her feet now, face rapidly becoming as red as her hair. "How could you?! After everything she did? She broke Kathy's arm! Put me in a coma!"
"Not to mention broke Bethany's hand, and damn near cracked my skull open with one of those damned batons of hers," Raquel interrupted, ignoring the roiling of her stomach. "Yes, Monica, I know. I was there, remember? She tore through you, all of you, and I couldn't stop her. I'm supposed to be your leader, but I couldn't even keep you from getting hurt. And then you wouldn't wake up, and Kathy was so miserable, and, and..." She forced herself not to start crying. "And then I start finding myself attracted to her, to the worst possible person I could find, just like in high school, when I knew how horribly that ended, only this is worse, because she's a sociopath, a monster, someone who describes herself as being 'spectacularly fucked up', and I can't stop wanting her, even knowing that, even knowing how you'll all react."
"Well... yeah, that pretty much covers everything I was going to say," Monica said, looking a little confused that Raquel was agreeing with her, even going farther then she would have. She sighed heavily. "I'm not going to pretend to be happy about this," she said finally, not meeting Raquel's eyes. "But I did ask, and I did say you could tell me, even after you warned me not to, so I can hardly complain just because I didn't like your answer." She paused. "I won't tell anyone. But just to make sure things are clear... we are not okay. This isn't something that I can just... accept, right away."
Raquel swallowed. "I understand," she said evenly, mentally willing Monica to leave the room.
"I just... need some time," Monica said, sounding uncomfortable, before she rose and left, shutting the door silently behind her.
Raquel kept it together just long enough to get up, relock the door, and collapse onto her bed. Then she finally permitted herself to start crying as she lay there, feeling miserable and alone.
**********************************************
Why did it have to be here, of all places...? Amy tried not to think about it, but that wasn't really an option just then.
She'd never been overly religious growing up - The Centre was hardly an environment conducive to believing in a benevolent higher power, after all - but this assignment had never sat right with her. In the past, she'd occasionally made up scenarios in which the Cardinal might have deserved it, but... Maybe this particular clue had been meant more for Kali then it had for her. Because Athena had been a lot of things, but cruel wasn't one of them.
She and Kali were trailing along behind a priest as they walked through the basement archives. It had taken a little while to find someone they could explain the situation to - Amy had ended up doing most of the talking, which had seemed to suit Kali just fine - but eventually they'd managed to make themselves understood, and learned that someone matching Athena's description had, indeed, left a package in their care which was meant for either of her two younger 'sisters'.
Max still hadn't looked happy (and Janet seemed terrified she might break something or offend someone), so Amy had suggested they 'go and say hi to the Pope, or something'. That idea, at least, Max had seemed to like.
Trying to find something else to focus on, she quietly said to Kali, "Look, about before..."
Kali gave her a sideways look. "What?" Their guide didn't seem to speak English, true, but was this really the time or place to have that conversation?
Amy seemed to think that it was. "I shouldn't have said what I did. At least, not the way I said it. I don't know exactly what's going on in your relationship-"
"We don't have a relationship."
"Does she know that?"
"We've had sex a couple of times. That's it." And while Kali didn't quite believe in God, she did at least have enough respect for where she was to avoid using profanity. "She doesn't strike me as stupid enough to automatically presume a deeper relationship exists because of that."
"She isn't, but that doesn't mean she won't want one. Based on what I know about Raquel, she doesn't usually engage in purely physical relationships. I'm not sure she can. From what I've heard, it's gotten her more then her share of heartbreak in the past, too. So maybe she knows what you want, and maybe she even thinks she can give it to you, but she will inevitably try to form connections, to make it emotional." She paused. "Actually, now that I think about it, she might be good for you."
"Really?" To say that Kali was skeptical would be putting it mildly. "After what I did to her and her friends, not to mention knowing who and what I am?"
"As a wise friend of mine told me once, 'you cannot decide matters of the heart'. You don't seem to see it, but she's already well on her way to falling for you."
"Why?"
"Perhaps because she can tell there's more to you then you usually let on."
She sighed. Heavily. "Don't start that again."
Amy shook her head. "Is it really so terrible, being with her? Spending time with someone who doesn't want anything from you beyond your company?"
"I'm not you, Amy. I don't form connections, I don't have friends, and I don't need them. And once we take down The Centre, I'm gone." And no matter what Amy thought, or hoped, she was hardly going to care when she left Raquel behind. If she really needed to give vent to her body's desires, she could find someone else easily enough. "Or would you want her to run away from the DEBS to join me in whatever I end up doing afterwards? Because I certainly wouldn't be able to stay here. You think she'd be a good assassin?"
"All I'm saying is that you should talk to her about this when you get back, if only to make absolutely sure you're both on the same page. Because she may not want to let you go."
"She will if she knows what's good for her," Kali said flatly.
"I think the point I've been trying to make is that she may not," Amy said as they drew to a stop in front of a crate. The priest opened it, reached inside, and withdrew a manila envelope. It had been a while since Amy had needed to speak in Italian, but it was such a lovely language. According to the priest, this was all the woman had left with them.
"Grazie, signore," she told him, taking it from him. It was surprisingly heavy, and the shape of whatever it contained was curiously familiar. They headed back to meet up with the others.
"Not going to open it, yet?" Kali asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I think we should wait for Max and Janet."
"Why?"
Amy looked at her, but there wasn't any scorn in Kali's voice. She seemed to be genuinely confused, not understanding what they could possibly need the two DEBS for. "Because we're on the same team. They're a part of this mission, too, so we're going to do this right."
"Whatever."
Amy's comm chirped. Not minding the interruption, she opened the channel. "Yes?"
"Amy?" Raquel's voice asked.
"Yes," she said again, peering critically at the 'watch' face. Raquel's voice was purely professional, but redness around her eyes showed that things may not have been utterly harmonious at home.
"You just got a message. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have read it, but backtracking the source revealed it came from The Centre."
Amy's (relatively) peaceful of moments before crashed and burned. "What did they want?"
"Well... I'm not entirely sure. It referenced the break-in of that vault in Montana, mentioned some kind of project - there's a code number here that I ran by Jarod, but he hasn't come up with anything, yet - and it says for you to stay away. Both of you."
"To stay away from... what?"
"From Project KR-117-OE-SL27, apparently."
Amy frowned. SL-27 was the sub-level that The Centre had based its "nonexistent" work in, such as Angelo... and the Pantheon project. Her frown deepened as she remembered that the first room she'd been taken to (as she'd later learned) had euphemistically been named 'Observation and Encouragement'. And hadn't 117 been the number of the common room?
She stopped dead in her tracks, forcing Kali and the priest to stop with her. Sheet white, she whispered, "They're going to do it again."
"What?" Raquel asked, obviously not having quite heard her.
"They're going to do it again," she repeated, louder. To Raquel, she said, "I want you to get in touch with Dominique. Have her find out everything she can about this. I need more information."
"We're trying to get through to her right now."
"Good. Because there is no way I'm going to let them do to someone else what they did to us. No. Way."
**********************************************
She didn't have much time, she knew. Seeing 'Diabolique' storm through The Centre as she had was bound to get some people talking, and she'd learned that gossip could spread throughout the building at a speed that was practically supersonic.
She hadn't gone to her own 'office', though, since she'd doubted what she'd wanted would be there. She had instead gone to what had used to be Raines' office, and wanted to find what she was looking for before someone came to ask what she was doing.
If only this was something Parker and her team might know about, things would be so much easier. Broots, she knew, would tell her immediately, as he was afraid of her. But then, he was afraid of a lot of things...
Still, though, as it was unlikely that whatever The Centre had contacted Amy about was something Parker would want to keep hidden, she wouldn't have ordered Broots to keep quiet - perhaps the one thing that would, to him, override even her.
The annoying thing was that Raines kept most of his documents in hard copy form, which had her looking through drawer after drawer of papers. Amy seemed to think that it had something to do with the Pretender program, which had at least narrowed the search somewhat.
Personally, she wondered why they didn't just abandon the whole thing entirely. Even to her, it was obvious that it was just more trouble for them then it was worth.
She'd gotten so used to not finding what she was looking for that she almost flipped right by it. Going back, she pulled the file and took it to Raines' old desk, sitting down.
Kristin Rhodes, age fourteen, attending junior high school in Tiffin, Ohio. Five-foot-three, short blonde hair, blue eyes. She took a nice picture, Dominique noted absently. She also got good grades.
Very good, in fact. The file informed her that Kristin had a lot of friends, participated in a number of after-school activities, and was an avid drama fan. She seemed to be a natural actress, able to understand her character's motivations so well that she all but became that person.
Dominique felt a chill race down her spine as she closed the file. Amy was right. They had identified another pretender, this one apparently completely untrained... and wanted to correct that.
She quickly rose to her feet and left the office. She had to get to somewhere that didn't have any cameras so that she could send the DEBS this file, but she also had to do it in a manner that wouldn't arouse suspicion. It was - thankfully - too early in the day for her to leave with a man, not that she wanted to (a realization that always surprised her, for some reason). Perhaps she could claim that she'd gotten a call from the Triumvirate and had to go somewhere? No, they might check the phone logs.
Or she could say she needed to go call them, and wanted to do it from somewhere secure, which Lucy Diamond had shown that The Centre was not. Yes, that would work. It would give her the perfect excuse while letting her get in a dig at them.
Hopefully, Amy would have an idea about what to do with this.
Because she certainly didn't.
**********************************************
"Would you mind going on ahead to tell Max and Janet about this?" Amy asked quietly. "I have a few more questions for Raquel."
"Why not just call her back later, then?"
Amy indicated the priest with her eyes. Kali looked like she wanted to roll her eyes, but politely asked the priest if he could escort her back to their friends. Oh, Amy would catch up, she assured him.
It likely wouldn't have worked quite as well if they'd reversed roles, but clearly the thought of someone as nice and polite as Amy being up to something just didn't make any sense to him, so he readily agreed.
Once they were out of earshot, Amy raised the comm back to face level. "You still there?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
Amy smiled. "Calm down, Raquel, it's just me. I wanted to apologize for before."
"...do we have to talk about that?"
Oh, boy. "I take it you told someone?"
"Monica."
And clearly it hadn't gone over well. "This is something that the two of you really need to talk about yourselves, but... how DO you feel about Nayana?"
Raquel clearly hadn't missed her using Kali's real name. "I... don't know. I mean, obviously I'm attracted to her - to a stupid degree, really - but... well, she scares me, frankly. But there's something... I don't know, exactly. I mean, I know I shouldn't want to be with her, but I do."
"That 'something' would probably be Nayana, herself. Most of the world just sees Kali, which is kind of the way she likes it. But buried deep down - way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaay deep down - there's a part of her there's a part of her that The Centre didn't manage to kill, that still feels and cares... and hurts. She is a real person, with real thoughts and feelings. And not to give you false hope, but I've never known her to give priority to her body's physical needs. And if she did just need a release, she probably would have just chosen some random guy, much as Dominique is famous for doing. I'm not sure what you did, but something about you seems to have piqued her interest."
Raquel was silent for long enough that Amy had nearly caught up with the others by the time she answered. "I'll... keep that in mind." She hung up then, evidently worried that Amy might try and have her talk to Kali right then, and not feeling ready for that.
That was fine by Amy. As much as she might have liked to just set aside a few hours and work out her friends' assorted romantic difficulties, they were on a mission.
"Everything settled?" Kali asked once she'd joined them in the lavishly decorated waiting room. Amy was a little regretful that she hadn't gotten to take a proper tour. Perhaps she'd come back some day for a personal, rather then official, visit.
She also hadn't missed the subtle meaning to the question. "I suppose we'll have to see," she replied, making it clear who had to make the next move.
"So, what's in the envelope?" Max asked. She certainly seemed to be in a much better mood then she had when they'd arrived. Amy decided not to mention it, not wanting to undo any progress she'd made.
"Let's see, shall we?" She opened the envelope, and pulled out the sole object it contained. She gave a vaguely incredulous, almost inaudible laugh. "I'd wondered where this had gotten off to," she said softly.
"What?" Janet asked. She knew what it was, of course. Anyone who hung around Amy long enough would. She just didn't understand the significance of that one.
Amy gently traced a finger over the cover of the sketchbook almost reverently. "This was the first one I ever had," she remarked, almost seeming to be talking to herself. "Doctor Mason gave it to me." She carefully opened it and started slowly flipping through her old drawings. They weren't exactly of the same quality she produced now, part of her noted clinically, but anyone would have recognized them as hers.
And she recognized the subjects, too. Each and every child in the Pantheon project had been immortalized on paper, including herself. She'd gone to a little difficulty finding a mirror so that she could sketch herself properly, but she'd wanted to make sure that everyone was in there.
She permitted herself to linger on Amaterasu's picture before continuing on. Finally, she reached the end, which told her exactly why it had been left as a clue. Unable to help it, she started to chuckle.
"What's so funny?" Max demanded.
Still chuckling, she turned the book around so that they could read the message written there. "Looks like I'm going to art school, after all."
**********************************************
"Holy crap," Janet said as she looked around the grounds of the school.
"You should see it in the day time," Amy told her. That was the only downside to globe hopping the way they were doing it - different time zones.
The Villanueva School of the Arts was every bit as beautiful as she remembered it, if not more so. Night muted the colors of the flowers and made it harder to pick out the Mediterranean sea, but she found that evenings in Barcelona were also breathtaking. For the first time in a while, she felt a pang of resentment towards her job for keeping her from this.
But if she lived long enough to retire, she certainly knew where she'd be doing it.
"I'll bet," Janet replied, looking awed. "No wonder you love this place. I can't even draw stick figures well, and I kind of want to go to school here."
Amy couldn't help but laugh at that. Even as she did, though, she noticed Max shift uncomfortably. No doubt she was remembering bring up the possibility of taking time off after graduation, and her mercilessly shooting that idea down.
Amy felt no real impulse to reassure her that she didn't mind.
"Well, since you're the only one who's ever been here before, I'm guessing you must have an idea of where to go to get the next piece of the puzzle," Kali said.
"Hmm." That was actually a good point. The one time she'd been here had been after Athena was killed, after all, so there was hardly any kind of shared memory for her to draw upon. What might Athena have thought would catch her attention? That it was the same art school she'd fallen in love with all those years ago was just a coincidence, she knew, but still... Athena had obviously been there at some point and known enough about how 'Sekhmet' felt that she could have made an educated guess.
What had she loved most about this place, that would also conceal a hidden message for so many years?
The fountain.
It just had to be. Moderately sized, it was designed so that the water fell back to earth in a complex yet somehow also simple pattern, and she'd known even then that she could have happily sat there for hours making sketches of it, or just listening to the soothing sound of the water as she drew something else, or read, or just... sat. "I think I know."
Silently hoping that they wouldn't be discovered by security, she lead them down the path that she remembered lead right to the fountain. It was in the center of the courtyard, and deservedly so. The others might not have appreciated it the way she did - such amazing lines, and patterns, and dimensions - but clearly they had at least a crude grasp of how lovely it was. Even Kali.
Guess she was right, way back when. I am an art snob, she thought, amused at herself.
Finding what they were looking for proved to be something of a challenge, since they could hardly go dismantling the fountain in search of clues. They spread out in a pattern, eventually reaching the very edges of the courtyard, but came up empty.
Amy was just starting to wonder if maybe she hadn't gotten it wrong when Janet, standing near her, happened to shine her light down on the bench in front of them.
Carved into the stone was the simple message Just because no one sees the sun through the fog, that doesn't mean it isn't there.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she wondered aloud. It was obviously Athena's handwriting - handcarving? - but she didn't understand the reference.
"You're asking me?" Janet shot back.
"I'm not..." Kali said, slowly. "It sounds... vaguely familiar, but I can't place it. Maybe if I go back and look through some of the DSAs, it'll jog my memory."
"Sounds like a plan," Max decided, preparing to signal for their beam out.
"Can I just... have a few minutes?" Amy requested, tentatively. At their inquisitive looks, she gestured almost sheepishly toward the fountain. "Last time I was here, I never got a chance to..." She shrugged. "You know."
After a few moments of silence, Max softly said, "I think we can spare a few minutes."
Amy gave her a grateful smile. It didn't exactly make up for so completely dismissing her dream, she decided as she sat down, fished out a pencil, and turned to the sole blank page left in her old sketchbook as she started to draw.
But it was a start.
**********************************************
After Amy had finished, they had beamed back to the academy. While Kali and Amy - the mystery of Athena's latest message beginning to irritate her - went off to view the DSAs, Janet announced she wanted to go buy a new sweater. Since Max had never known her to ever return from a shopping trip with A sweater before, she wasn't expecting her back for a while.
Lacking anything better to do, she'd gone back to their house, hoping that maybe a little peace and quiet would help her decompress, and process everything. It had, after all, been a fairly eventful day.
No sooner had she gotten inside her bedroom, however, then that plan was shot to hell by a pair of hungry lips fastening to hers as the momentum of the warm body in front of her propelled them her backwards into her door.
She didn't even need to turn on the light to see who it was (though she did do so in order to keep from tripping over anything later), as she recognized the kiss. The intensity of it was a bit more urgent then it had ever been in the past, though. "What... are you... doing... here?" she asked during sporadic breaks for air.
"Zey brought me back so I could tell zem everything I knew about ze file," Dominique told her, all but tearing Max's clothes off in her haste to get them off her. "I decided to spend ze night here. My calls will be forwarded from ze house in Blue Cove."
"Oh. Good." Honestly, though, she barely cared. She hadn't quite realized just how much she'd been missing Dominique. She'd probably been a bit more tense with her team then she might have otherwise, even with Amy's revelation about her (possible) initial visit to the Vatican.
Time seemed to blur by, a rush of touch, of taste, of feeling. Even when she lay next to Dominique in her bed, worn out, she got the sense that the French girl could have kept going. It was as if every sexual impulse she'd had to deny while away were all trying to come out at once. "Dom," she finally gasped as she tried to regain her breath. "Stop. Can we... can we just talk, a minute?"
"Of course." Because she didn't want Max to pass out on her... yet. "What do you wish to talk about?"
Right. This had been her idea, hadn't it? "Well... about last time," she said finally.
"Ah." She didn't need to ask what Max was talking about. "I will admit, I was... confused."
"I know. And I'm sorry about that. But you weren't the only one."
"I am... also sorry."
Max frowned in confusion. "For what?"
Dominique looked uncomfortable, her eyes locked on nothing in particular on the other side of the room. "I know I did not... perform adequately."
"What are you talking about?"
Why did she have to drag this out? "What you were doing... I did not understand it. So I could not properly return it. I..."
"Dom, look at me." Dominique kept stubbornly looking elsewhere. "Look at me," Max insisted, gently taking her by the chin and turning her face until they locked eyes. "You did not do anything wrong. There wasn't any way you could have known what I was doing, after all. I didn't even know. I just... Something was different."
Still looking in Dominique's eyes, she continued, "I don't feel right when you're not here, anymore. So much of what I think or feel seems to revolve around you, now. I'm constantly wondering what you're doing, or thinking, or if everything's going all right for you at The Centre."
"I... cannot do my job as I have in the past anymore," Dominique replied, shakily. "Even if only to gather information, the thought of being with someone else makes me feel physically ill."
It may not have been the reaction she was expecting, but she was relieved when Max smiled. "Quite the pair we make, huh?"
"Oui."
All at once, it hit her. She could practically hear Amy's voice in her mind, pushing her toward that final realization. "I think I love you."
Dominique's eyes widened in shock.
"I know, I know, you probably get that all the time, but-"
"No," Dominique interrupted. "I do not. I cannot recall the last time someone said that to me." Not even her family, which wasn't something she felt like discussing just then. "I am afraid... I have no reference for such a feeling. But... I..."
Max, seeing Dominique struggle to express herself clearly, placed a finger on her lips, silencing her. "It's all right," she said warmly. "You don't have to say anything. And I'll do my very best to show you what love means."
"...merci."
There was a knock at the door, startling them. "Are you two decent?" called Amy's amused voice.
"Not exactly, no," Max replied, smirking. "Will that stop you?"
"Ordinarily, yes, as you well know. But if you're inviting me in..."
Dominique raised an eyebrow, as if asking how far she intended on taking this. Max just gave her a grin. She never had been one to back down. "Well, obviously we don't have anything you've never seen before. If you don't feel like waiting the few seconds it would take us to get dressed, come on in."
There was a pause, then Amy swung the door open. "Somehow, I think it might take longer then that," she remarked, observing the clothing scattered all over the floor. Helpfully, she moved around, collecting various items and tossing them to the pair in bed. "Kali thinks she's getting close to figuring out the clue," she said. "And apparently I got another message from The Centre while I was out. I haven't had a chance to go read it yet, though." She paused. "And don't worry. After growing up the way I did, seeing other girls dress or undress doesn't bother me. We didn't exactly each have our own showers, after all."
And that was true. But it didn't mean she didn't steal an occasional glimpse of Max and Dom while they got dressed.
She was suddenly reminded of why she'd been a little attracted to Max when they'd first met. And Dom...
She did her best not to look at Dom more then was absolutely necessary.
She would have loved to ask what they'd been talking about that had gotten Max so relaxed she didn't even mind her walking in on them, but knew it wouldn't be a good idea so soon.
They were met at the academy proper by Kathleen, who looked very anxious. "Remember how you told us to keep investigating what they were up to?" she asked.
"Yes," Amy said as she accepted the printout of the email.
"I don't think they appreciated it."
No, Amy saw as she read and reread the message. No, they didn't. She swung a fist sideways at the wall, and flakes of plaster drifted down. She didn't even notice the pain, guilt and anger too busy warring for dominance in her head.
Anger seemed to be winning.
"What? What is it?" Max asked, concerned. Amy handed her the paper even as she spat out three very coldly angry, very horrible words.
"They've taken Janet."
Well, hopefully with my other story, the wait for this chapter wasn't too terrible. :)
Next time - Amy is forced to choose between saving the new Pretender and rescuing Janet, while Kali finds the missing piece of Athena's puzzle.