Pantheon - Chapter Thirty-One (12/07/2007)
Well, this is it. The last chapter before the epilogue. Almost a year now that I've been working on this story. Kind of hard to believe, huh?
Aw, heck, you know who's paired with whom by now. ;)
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*
Wow. After all this time, we've finally reached the last full chapter.
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 Thirty-One
Dominique had set the alarm on her 'watch' for exactly one minute before the invasion was scheduled to begin. Despite waiting for it all morning, she still jumped a little when it finally went off, and silenced it quickly.
It was time.
She made sure her glock was fully loaded, and that she had several spare clips located here and there on her person. Unfortunately, due to her cover, she hadn't been able to bring any larger, heavier-caliber weapons with her. Hopefully, she wouldn't be needing it at all.
She made sure she'd collected everything she'd brought with her to The Centre, then left her small office and headed out into the hall. Thankfully, it was nearly empty, with only a few office workers present. Of course, every single person that worked for The Centre - with a few rare, specific exceptions - had to be considered a threat and neutralized, and one never knew who might be armed and willing to use their weapon.
When the lights first went off, one of the workers was on her right, just passing her. He stopped dead, and she promptly elbowed him in the gut, then slammed her fists down on his skull. His head actually bounced off the floor, and she knew she wouldn't have to worry about him waking up before he'd been secured. She slipped out of her shoes and ran silently over to where she remembered the second being, and the emergency lights came on just in time to show his surprised look as her foot came flying out of a spinning side kick to head right at his face.
He was out cold before he really knew what had hit him.
The other one would be harder, as she'd obviously expended the surprise that she'd had, so she simply pulled her gun and calmly told him, "Do not move."
He very helpfully froze in place.
She headed back toward him, pausing only long enough to slip her shoes back on, then gestured with her gun. "Turn around," she ordered. He didn't hesitate to comply, no doubt thinking that the Triumvirate's pet killer had finally snapped. Or that the Triumvirate itself had come to kill everyone. She didn't really care, simply knocking him out as well before he could present any complications. The hallway was otherwise empty, and, finally feeling safe to do so, she raised her comm and said, "This eez Diabolique reporting in. I 'ave three prisoners unconscious on SL-11 and in need of securing."
"Copy that, Diabolique," Janet's voice said a moment later. "It's good to hear from you."
"It eez good to be heard from," she replied absently as she quickly frisked the unconscious men. One of them must have had... Ah! She pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket, lit one, and inhaled deeply. Oh, that was so much better.
"Backup is on the way. Go secure the elevators on that floor. There are a few people there who don't seem to know you're supposed to use the stairs in emergencies." The stairwell doors, of course, would be locked down, with Janet remotely unlocking them one at a time as needed. Dominique guessed they must have already tried the stairs, and found they couldn't get in, for some reason.
"As you wish." It was actually easier then she'd expected. They were actually happy to see her, which she attributed to the situation, and only too gladly followed her right to the waiting government agents, who had just arrived to secure her other prisoners.
That pattern would play out on several other floors, their lack of communication meaning it ended up being a surprise to them every time. That was just fine by her. She had no problem with capturing team after team of enemy forces without firing a shot.
She'd been on her way to help a team under fire when the building abruptly started to shake, and a beam of green energy punched its way straight through the heart of The Centre. She muttered a French curse that went largely unheard, then said into her comm, "And zat was...?"
There was a lengthy pause, leading her to suspect that Janet was dealing with a flood of such questions, then she heard, "I think our Perfect Score asked her girlfriend for a favor."
"Ah." Well, that made sense, she supposed. She couldn't imagine that Petrie would be especially thrilled to learn that Lucy evidently had that kind of firepower at her disposal, but that blast had helped with the current situation...
Well, Dominique wasn't about to complain.
**********************************************
Tanaka Hiroko grimaced at the sight that greeted the medical team as they entered the main security room. There were two fallen Yakuza warriors. One had been shot in the head at close range, the bullet passing clean through his skull to lodge in the wall, leaving a spray of brain tissue, bone gristle, and blood stretching from there to the body. The second ninja was in much worse condition, laying in a pool of blood. He had been impaled through the neck upon his own katana, which was just one of a hundred things she'd seen that day that would keep her up nights.
Dr. Watanabe headed immediately headed for the fiery haired DEB sprawled face down on the security console, a nurse following him while two others went to go put the corpses into body bags for removal. Hiroko, technically, was not one of the medical corps, but a member of the intelligence division of the MSDF who happened to have medical training. A number of MSDF units were rounding up any Centre vessels or aircraft - that would be in conjunction with the ASDF, she knew - that they'd discovered once they'd gained access to the computers, but intelligence had wanted at least one agent to be on hand during the raid on the main complex, to make sure everything was handled properly.
As she drifted over to the doctor's side, Hiroko decided those fears had been completely unfounded. The DEBS, as well as any other American agents that might be present, had been completely professional and worthy of respect. And she, at least, was grateful to them for alerting the Japanese government to the situation in the first place.
Watanabe's dialogue with the nurse became more urgent, and she realized that the DEB was still alive. Without waiting to be prompted, she barked out an order into her radio for a gurney to be brought down. He spared just a second to give her a grateful nod, then went back to examining the injured young woman.
The angle at which the knife had entered her body made it clear that her assailant had been in a crouching position on the floor while she had been standing. The injured woman - who, according to the radio chatter she'd heard, went by the codename Banshee - might not agree, but that had actually been very lucky for her. Thanks to the angle, the knife had missed any vital organs, though her movements afterwards and her attempts to staunch the flow of blood had pushed the blade closer to her spleen. Getting it out would thus have to be done very delicately, as it was also worryingly close to her colon.
A gurney was finally brought in and locked in place, and Hiroko assisted the corpsmen in transferring the injured Banshee as gingerly as possible onto it. With as much blood as she'd lost, and would lose after the knife was removed, it was obvious she was going to need a transfusion. As her own blood was type O-Negative, Hiroko flatly insisted on being the donor. Dr. Watanabe didn't offer much of an argument, as he certainly wanted to do everything in his power to save his patient, but she steamrolled right over even that.
The DEBS had brought to their attention a cancer that had been growing unnoticed in their midst, then volunteered to lead the charge against it, despite how thin this would cause them to spread themselves, and had done so with courage and integrity, and this young woman had been gravely injured, yet had done everything within her power to continue doing her duty as long as she could.
She had to do this for her.
Honor demanded no less.
**********************************************
This really wasn't one of her better days.
In the back of her mind, Miss Parker had always wondered if a day like this might come: When The Centre's all-mighty connections, money, and political clout might fail them, and justice would finally come for them.
Somehow, though, the possibility had never seemed real.
Not until she'd been in the middle of a video conference with her father when Amy - no, when Sekhmet - had called (and she buried a shiver even now at the memory of the young woman's voice... yes, that was someone who had grown up in The Centre, all right) and launched into her history lesson. Then the lights had gone out, the video connection had died, and The Centre had gone into lockdown.
It hadn't taken long for her to work out what had happened, and she'd quickly tried to alert security... only to discover that the phones were out. So she'd taken out her cell phone, called Sam, and had him spread the word that they were under attack as best he could. She'd been heading for the access shaft that ran up the length of The Centre when the entire complex had begun to shake, and not even two seconds later an immense blast of green energy thundered down in front of her, the shockwave it generated knocking her off her feet and sending her flying backwards.
Things had kind of gone away for a while, and when she came to, it was obvious she'd been moved somewhere else. But not captured, she noticed. Her rescuer turned out to be Frenchie herself, which pretty well cemented the idea in Parker's mind that she wasn't actually a member of the Triumvirate.
None of them would have bothered worrying about anyone but themselves.
She'd been propped up against a wall in an empty side corridor, Diabolique leaning indolently against the other wall, smoking a cigarette while giving her an inscrutable look. "Finally," she huffed. "I was beginning to wonder if you would ever wake up."
"And hello to you, too," Parker grumbled, hissing in a breath and she heaved herself to her feet, steadying herself against the wall until everything stopped spinning. "What hit me?"
"Nothing, directly. From what I 'ave seen, had the beam actually hit you, it would 'ave disintegrated you. I suspect you can thank Amy's girlfriend for zat."
Diamond, again. "I should have shot her when I had the chance," she muttered.
"Did you not try to do just zat?" Diabolique asked, sounding vaguely amused. Parker grumbled something unrepeatable under her breath, both knowing full well that she, in fact, had tried just that. "Ze situation eez much more complicated zen zat, 'owever."
"What, is Kali here, too?"
Diabolique shrugged. "I could not say. With ze sheer number of federal agents, police officers, and DEBS present, it eez difficult to pick any specific person out, especially when you are trying to remain unnoticed."
Parker was rendered speechless. It didn't last long, since this was Miss Parker, but she had to admit to being shocked. She'd gotten too used to it being just them against Jarod, she realized. As smart as he was, Jarod just didn't have the resources to combat The Centre. The best he could do was to hope to continue evading them. Amy, however...
Amy was a federal agent, a governmental employee. More then that, she was the DEBS poster girl, and had the intelligence of a Pretender combined with the very best training The Centre had ever managed to offer. And, to top it all off, she'd been off their radar for nine years, during which time she'd had ample opportunity to build support for action to be taken against them. She'd made it seem like she was going to follow Jarod's lead in order to throw them off, to distract them from what she was really doing, and they'd swallowed it completely.
"Well," a new voice said, breaking into her musings. "There's a site that countless people would have paid good money to see over the years: The Centre's ranking bitch shocked stupid." Her head whipped up to see Amy walking down the hall toward her, one her right another DEB that she vaguely remembered was named Max something or other, while on her left...
Again, she told herself that she shouldn't have been surprised. "Jarod."
"Miss Parker," he replied evenly. "Haven't seen you in a while. I was starting to think you might have forgotten about me. So I came to check on you." He half-smiled. "And brought a few friends."
It hadn't taken nearly as much convincing to talk Phipps into letting him accompany the second wave as he'd thought. Then again, the DEBS were being stretched very thin by this raid, so they could hardly afford to say no, especially to someone so familiar with The Centre.
Thankfully, he'd been able to make sure Angelo was escorted out safely. He said a silent thank you to Kali that she'd arranged to have Sydney and his patients moved out of harm's way before anything had even happened. Likely she'd done it out of tactical concern for how panicky civillians might have screwed everything up had they been there, but he liked to think that there was at least a possibility she'd done it out of compassion, or because it was the right thing to do.
"Where's schoolgirl number three?" Parker demanded, seemingly unconcerned about the two guns being aimed at her.
"She's busy," Amy replied simply. "So we snagged Jarod here as a temporary replacement so we could have a full squad for the wrap up."
That she evidently had been left for last was either a compliment or an insult, and she didn't much feel like figuring out which. "Right, because God forbid you do anything without all three of you present."
A gun was suddenly pressed against the back of her head, stilling her movements, and a cool - and distinctly French - voice corrected, "Four."
She froze. "Excuse me?"
Diabolique sounded faintly amused. "Ze DEBS teams are composed of squads of four."
Suddenly, a thousand little things made sense - amond them why little to no progress had been made on capturing Amy. "You're a DEB?" she spat coldy.
"And you are under arrest," Diabolique - or whoever she actually was - replied cheerfully. "You 'ave the right to remain silent... and I do suggest you exercise it, if only for your own sake."
Given their audience, Parker had to concede that might not be the worst idea she'd ever heard.
"You 'ave ze right to an attorny. If you cannot afford one - and since all of ze Centre's assets 'ave been frozen, and your horde of lawyers are facing their own charges, zat does seem entirely possible - one will be provided for you at no cost." She paused, then audibly smirked. "Do you understand these charges as I 'ave read zem to you?"
Since her attempts to vaporize Frenchie with the sheer force of her anger weren't working, she growled aloud, "Yes." She glared at Jarod. "You're just loving this, aren't you?"
"Watching the people who did their damndest to destroy my family and God knows how many others, who tortured and abused children as if they were just weapons or property, who thought they could play God finally get what's coming to them?" He paused, then allowed, "I don't hate it."
"Sure, you didn't know about a lot of that," Amy interjected. "And that will be factored in when a decision is made as to what to do with you. But there will be jail time involved. And not that I think you'd actually say yes, but given how deeply your father and the other higher ups mislead you regarding a good amount of what went on here, we can't really even offer you a reduced sentence in exchange for your testimony against them."
Parker forced herself to think past her anger. They'd lost. It was as simple as that. And if she really had nothing else left, she would maintain her dignity. "What about Sydney and Broots?"
Amy and Jarod traded surprised looks. "Since they had so little to do with anything, it's unlikely they'll be facing any jail terms," Amy replied. She had no intention of revealing Broots' contribution to the raid. "We may even have positions for them in LA." She paused, then smiled. "I'm sure we can have you placed in a federal prison nearby, so they can visit you."
"Oh, good. That will give me something to wake up for," she said, her biting sarcasm making it clear that, under arrest or not, Miss Parker would always be Miss Parker.
Amy could admire her determination, but it would do nothing to help her this time. "Oh, knock it off." Her eyes narrowed. "Meredith."
Parker flinched back in shock - Dominique had taken her gun away and slipped a set of plastic restraints on her, so that action didn't result in her getting shot - and the others, save for Jarod, were similarly surprised. Amy smirked. "Amazing the things one can learn while being trained as an assassin and a spy about those responsible for that training, isn't it?"
"Why not ever use that name, then?" Max asked. "Doesn't sound like there's anything wrong with it."
"Not directly, no," Amy agreed. "Of course, the most common nickname that would come from it would be 'Merry,' and if there's one thing our Miss Parker here isn't..."
"This is true," Max allowed. Turning to Dom, she said, "Get her out of here." Dom acknowledged the order with a nod, then pushed Parker along down the hall, a pair of heavily armed Army officers meeting them at the corner and escorting them on their way. Raising her comm, she said, "Angora, this is Panther, come in."
"Go ahead, Panther."
"Is Parker senior still secure?"
"Copy that. There had been a few Sweepers gathering around the outside of his office trying to get in, but they were neutralized... by another Sweeper, apparantly."
Even Amy seemed surprised. "Are you sure?" Max asked.
"Well, I guess he could be a Cleaner. I'm honestly not sure what the distinction is. But he's definitely one of their people. He doesn't seem to be presenting our people with any kind of threat."
Max frowned, considering, then said, "This I have to see."
And sure enough, by the time they got up there - and Max had to silently admit that she was a little impressed by the sheer destruction the 'Diamond Ray' (or whatever it was actually called) had caused to the more fragile building atop the sub-levels - they could see that Janet was right. Three woozy and injured Sweepers (and one man who looked like a copy boy) were being lead away by FBI agents, while a few SWAT team members stood there facing a lone, seemingly unarmed man who looked to be in his mid-forties. He didn't seem especially upset by their presence, or the occasional weapon being pointed his way.
Max looked him over, then studied Amy, who was also studying him. Recognition set in, and the blonde shook her head. "Well, I'll be damned," she muttered, a smile forming on her lips. She fearlessly walked forward, parting the SWAT team with ease. "I should have known it would be you," she said, amused affection evident in her tone.
He and Max blinked in unison. "Do I know you?" he asked, confused.
She grinned. "I'll admit, I have changed a bit over the last nine years, but think about it."
Astonishment spread over his face. "You... They said you were..."
"That's what I wanted them to think," she said, walking forward to give him a hug. "It's good to see that you're still alive, too, Jeff."
Oh. Max relaxed, and the SWAT team seemed to take their cue from her. So this was the semi-famous Jeff Cooper, Amy's old driver. Taking a chance, she ordered the cops, "Stand down." She and Jarod moved up to join Amy, who had let Jeff go and taken a step back. "I guess thanks are in order," she said.
"No, this was just..." He waved a hand around to indicate where the downed Sweepers had been. "When I figured out what was happening, well..." He smiled sadly at Amy. "After so many years, it finally seemed like the right time to act."
"Actually, I meant in regards to taking care of our girl here," Max corrected him, nudging Amy with her hip. "Trust me, that alone would have earned you a good number of friends."
"I could have done a lot more then I did," he disagreed, shaking his head.
"It hardly matters anymore," Amy said simply. "This time of your life is over, now."
"Kind of hard to believe this is all happening, isn't it?" he asked, speaking to Jarod for the first time in years.
Jarod had to smile as he shook the other man's hand. "It really is."
"Well," Amy said, a vaguely predatory edge to her smile. "There is one last thing we have to do, isn't there?" She looked past them at the doors to Mister Parker's office.
"Time to chop off this snake's head."
**********************************************
She was drifting.
It felt like there was something she was supposed to be doing, something important, but she simply couldn't remember what it was. Something...
She lost it.
At first there was pretty much nothing, her mind too tired to serve up much of anything. Soon, though, there came fragments of memories. She remembered her sixth birthday, when she'd "accidentally" dumped a bowl of ice cream over her brother's head. The first day of high school. Graduation. Heading off to college.
Meeting Kathleen.
She remembered her team, remembered their first mission, all the fun they'd had over the last three years. But her thoughts kept straying back to Kathleen.
She'd always suspected there was something a little different about herself then most. She'd never been as into guys as her friends while growing up, and has occasionally caught herself staring at some of the prettier girls in school. She'd generally written it off as admiration, wanting to be like them. And that wasn't entirely untrue. But when she'd met Kathleen...
She'd felt nauseaous and giddy and had barely been able to get any sleep the first night after they'd been assigned as roommates. They became friends almost immediately, and she was able to push her strange feelings into the background... mostly. So she had a crush on her roomie, she'd decided. Embarrassing, perhaps, but she was confident she'd get over it in time.
Except that she hadn't. If anything, it had gotten worse. And when it was revealed that Kathleen was gay... She'd nearly driven herself insane wondering if she'd actually had a chance. That Kathleen had roomed with her that long and never shown any particular interest, however, hadn't boded well for that possibility.
Until Kathleen kissed her. And good Lord, what a kiss...
Kathleen was in danger.
She wasn't sure where the thought came from for a moment, then everything else came flooding back. They were in Japan. On a mission. She'd been stabbed, and Kathleen was...
Gradually, she became aware of the plastic and metal of the gurney underneath her, and, with what felt like much more effort then it should have required, forced her eyes open.
There were several Japanese people hovering around her that she quickly deduced were doctors. Judging by the lack of pain she was feeling, they must have been carrying some really good drugs with them.
"Welcome back," a lightly accented voice commented from off to the side. "You had us all worried for a minute, there."
Turning her head to look seemed a little easier then opening her eyes had, so she guessed she was starting to feel better. An attractive woman in her mid-to-late thirties was sitting in her former chair, and a nurse bandaging her arm and putting away a needle and IV of some kind gave a clue as to why she was sitting down. "Who...?"
"Hiroko. Tanaka Hiroko." She smiled. "You would be Banshee, then?"
She smiled back. It was a little weak, but it was there. "Aye, that's me. You can call me Monica, though."
"Very well, Monica-san. Do you remember what happened?"
"Do you mean about the mission in general, or how I got a knife stuck in my side? Because the answer would be yes to both." She paused, gathering her courage. "How... How bad is it?"
Hiroko and the man who had to be the doctor had a rapid back and forth exchange in Japanese, then she said, "Well, you're a very lucky young woman. The blade managed to avoid hitting any major organs, though it did scrape one of your ribs. The injury will take some time to heal, but once it does, except for some scarring, you'll be as good as new."
She let her head fall back as she went limp with relief. "Oh, good," she whispered. "Thank him for me, please, would you?" As Hiroko did so, Monica reflected.
She supposed she had gotten lucky, if only in comparison to what might have happened if the knife had hit her an inch or three higher or lower. And she could live with a scar.
Kathleen, she was certain, wouldn't care at all.
That reminded her...
"What's going on out there, anyway?" she asked. "I'm supposed to be-"
"You are supposed to be resting, that is what you are supposed to be doing," Hiroko told her sternly, resting a hand on her shoulder to keep her still. "Stay put."
"I have no intention of trying to be a bloody hero and leaping up off this gurney to march out there," Monica assured her. If she did that, she'd be a 'bloody' hero in more ways then one.
"Glad to hear it."
No sooner had Hiroko let her go, however, then Monica inhaled sharply. Now she remembered. Kathleen was in danger - the whole team was! "My team..." she said, fighting not to squirm. She hadn't been kidding before, she knew better then to think she was in any kind of shape for a fight. But she needed to know what was happening.
"You are referring to the DEBS in the combat practice area?" She nodded repeatedly. "Ah." She hit a few keys on the keyboard in front of her, and one of the monitors changed to show a wide-angle view of the huge gym. "Our forces are moving into that area now, but there seems to be little to do beyond... mopping up, I believe is the expression."
The image on the screen backed up her words, and Monica sighed in relief. Oh, thank God... "Thank you."
Hiroko shook her head. "No, thank you. We have achieved a momentous victory today, and that is thanks to you and your people. That will not be forgotten any time soon."
Monica had no idea how to respond to that, so she simply smiled. "Our pleasure." With some effort, she moved her arm up to rest on her chest near her collarbone. "Kathy?" she began. If the mission was fairly well over, why bother using code names? Besides, Kathleen would be the only one that would hear her. Well, her and anyone standing near her, but who cared? "Are ye still there?"
There was a stunned silence, then, "Monica? Are you... Is everything...?"
"I'm fine, love," she said softly. "Well... I won't be dancing any time soon, but I'll recover." She had to grin at the resulting torrent of muttered thanks and occasional profanity.
She stole a look at Hiroko, who had to know that this really wasn't appropriate behavior for two squadmates, but the Japanese woman merely smiled back at her.
After all, she'd earned this.
**********************************************
Raquel almost started laughing when the Japanese forces finally started streaming into the not-quite-a-dojo. Better late then never, she supposed, but it might have been nice if they'd shown up when there were still more then a handful of bad guys on their feet.
She was too tired to complain, though.
Kali, to her mild annoyance, barely seemed to be breathing hard. "How do you DO that?" she demanded.
Kali looked amused. "Do what?"
"That!" Raquel waved a hand aimlessly at her. "All that fighting, and you're just..."
"Ah. Endurance training." The words were clipped, and thought her expression never wavered, her eyes seemed to chill briefly, discouraging further such questions.
Raquel suspected she didn't want to know. "So..." she began as various Japanese agents milling about around them. "That's it, huh?"
"Yeah." And unless she was seeing things, that was Nayana peeking out from behind Kali's eyes. "There are probably still some pockets of resistance here and there around the globe, but for all intents and purposes, The Centre is dead."
Raquel dared a small smile. "How's it feel?"
Kali considered that. "Strange," she admitted. "Good, but..."
"Uncertain?" Raquel guessed.
"I suppose so. The one constant in my life, whether I liked it or not... is gone."
"Redefining yourself sounds like a scary prospect."
"I'm sure it does," she said, though she herself didn't really get scared anymore. By anything. It was a little boring, really - even life or death situations only gave her a mild adrenaline rush these days.
Raquel paused, then gave up and blurted out, "I don't want you to go."
"I know," she said softly. Louder, she added, "But I can't stay."
"You could... if you wanted..." It was obvious by her tone, though, that Raquel knew she was stretching the truth almost to the breaking point. She tried to smile it off. "Of course, if you did, I might end up having to arrest you, if that data core you found didn't do what you hoped it would for you."
Kali smirked, and it almost melted her. "Would you?"
Meep, her brain informed her. She shifted uncomfortably. "Don't go," she whispered.
Nayana - and it was definitely Nayana now - shook her head in seeming fond amusement and placed a hand under Raquel's chin. "Innocent little lamb," she breathed, surprising Raquel again. She'd once idly looked up the meaning of her name, and knew that both 'innocent' and 'lamb' applied... even if they didn't really seem to anymore, at least as far as she was concerned. (Nayana, she'd found out the day she'd learned that was Kali's real name, meant 'one with attractive eyes', and she really had to give Nayana's parents credit for that one, as it fit her perfectly.)
Then Nayana was kissing her, and she forgot about everything else.
"Raquel, where are you?" Kathleen called from somewhere behind her, hidden by the crowd.
Reluctantly breaking away from Nayana, she half-turned and called, "I'm over here!" She opened her eyes and turned back to Nayana.
Who was gone.
There hadn't been so much as a sound or a whisper of movement, but she was nonetheless utterly and inexplicably gone.
"Son of a bitch!"
"What? What's wrong?" Kathleen asked as she, Bethany, and a representative of the Japanese forces arrived. "Are you all right?"
"Fine." She sighed. "It's just... She was here. She was right here!"
"Who was?" Bethany asked. As if she didn't know.
"Kali. She was here," Raquel said, gesturing at the space Nayana had been occupying. "And then... poof! Gone."
"That's impossible," Bethany countered. "With this many people around, someone would have had to see her leave."
That didn't mean they would have stopped her, though, Raquel knew. After all, why would they? If they didn't think she was a strangely attired DEB, they would at least consider her their ally, and thus would have let her go unimpeded. But Bethany was in a silly - or possibly euphoric - mood, it seemed, so there was no point in saying any of that.
"Uh, you guys," Kathleen said, kneeling down to retrieve something from the floor. She studied it, then handed it to Raquel.
It wasn't much to look at. Just a thin, silver metal band. One side said PANTHEON - SL-27, while on the opposite side was simply KALI. While it was entirely possible that it was just something Nayana had wanted to get rid of, a symbolic way of trying to leave Kali behind, that she'd left it right there...
Raquel smiled.
**********************************************
He'd been expecting her for a while, now, but it was still something of a surprise when Amy yanked open his office doors and boldly strode in as if she owned the place.
Given the current state of affairs, perhaps that wasn't too far off the mark.
Somehow, Parker wasn't surprised to see that Jarod had come with her. That even one of his own people had betrayed him and sided with them barely phased him.
He wondered if he wasn't going into shock. Everything seemed so disconnected, as if none of it was real.
Oh, but it was real. It was all too real.
"I was wondering when you'd get here," he said tiredly, not bothering to rise from behind his desk. "I was beginning to think you might have forgotten about me."
"Oh, we were saving the best for last," Amy all but purred, striding up to his desk and aiming her gun at his head.
Max cautiously approached her. "You don't really want to do this, do you?"
Amy considered that. "I do," she replied, tightening her grip on the gun. "I really, really do."
"It might be nice if we could take at least one member of The Centre's leadership in alive, though, don't you think?"
He already knew what had happened to Raines. But that meant... "The Triumvirate-"
"Is dead," Amy finished. "You can thank Kali for that. Well, that and their stupidity and general evilness that lead to their downfall. She also, I suspect, was behind what happened to Lyle."
His blood chilled. "What are you talking about?"
Amy - or perhaps it was Sekhmet - lowered her gun, evidently deciding she could take more pleasure out of his suffering. "One of our teams found him in a small office on SL-10. Someone had cut out his heart and fed it to him." She paused. "Which I suppose, considering the canabilistic aspect to some of his crimes, would be suitably ironic."
Parker struggled to process that, trying his damndest not to show weakness in front of this... whatever she was. No matter how he might have felt about Lyle, he had still been his son, and he was still dead. "And my daughter?" he rasped.
"What, you mean dear, sweet Merry?" He glared at her, but she only laughed, though the emotion didn't touch her eyes. "Oh, she's fine. I'm sure she'll fit in quite nicely in jail. Unlike, say, you."
"But then, being locked up against your will and monitored constantly isn't for everyone," Jarod added in a hard tone.
So, this was to be how The Centre would end. With a bang and then a whimper. So be it. He was a Parker, he thought as he slowly stood, and Parkers did not show weakness.
Amy decided to let Jarod cuff him while she read him his rights. It seemed appropriate. As the SWAT team lead him away, Amy dropped down into his chair, letting out a slow breath.
That was it. The last piece of The Centre had been removed. They were actually... done. The enormity of what they'd just accomplished hit her, and she had to fight down a hysterical giggle.
Time enough for that later. There was one thing... Actually, two things she still had to do before she could leave. She rose and left the office without a word, sensing that the others were following her. "Uh, Amy..." Max began.
She stopped and turned to face them. "This is something I have to do alone," she said with a sad smile. "I have to go back down there." She paused, then added, "I have to say goodbye."
Max nodded slowly. "All right. And... good luck."
She smiled again. "Thanks." She turned and began to walk away, calling over her shoulder, "I could say the same to you."
"Wh-" was all she was able to get out before Dominique, who'd just tracked them down after making sure Miss Parker was firmly in custody, spun her around and kissed the daylights out of her.
**********************************************
"Kathy, really, I'm going to be all right!" Monica insisted, trying to keep her worried girlfriend from smothering her with kisses. She cast a pleading look at the amused Hiroko. "Will you tell her I'm going to be all right?" she requested.
"She is going to be all right," Hiroko repeated dutifully, though laughter lingered in her eyes.
Kathleen finally managed to get herself under control. "I'm sorry. I just..."
"I know," Monica said softly. "But I did sort of promise you somethng, didn't I?"
Kathleen smiled reflexively. "More or less," she agreed.
Bethany's phone rang, and she walked out into the hall to answer it. At Raquel's inquiring look, she said, "Something about Mark, I think. Don't worry. He knows he's not going to be getting out of our next date even if he broke something."
And while that may have seemed like a rather arrogant, controlling thing to say, Raquel knew that she meant she'd move the date to his bedside in the hospital while she took care of him if she had to.
They were currently inside the security room, watching the final cleanup on the monitors. Well, Raquel thought, 'final' wasn't exactly an accurate term. The Japanese authorities would no doubt spend weeks taking this place apart. But they'd be doing it without her team. They would be leaving as soon as the doctors declared Monica stable enough for transport, to go home and enjoy a very well deserved rest. "How are you feeling, chica?"
"A little better," Monica decided. "They have some pretty good drugs here."
Raquel grinned. "Glad to hear it. But don't worry, I'm sure we can come up with someth-"
"NO!"
Heads whipped around to look at Bethany, who looked like someone had just punched her in the gut... with the knife that had been taken out of Monica's side. Her earlier confidence had been blasted away, leaving her looking like a terrified child.
Raquel was immediately heading over to her. "But... No, he can't be... But he was wearing... No, they didn't have anything like that here that I noticed..." Her voice started to break. "He promised..."
"Oh, no," Monica whispered.
"What's wrong?" Hiroko asked, confused.
"Mark's her boyfriend," Kathleen said sadly. "Or he was."
Bethany's phone dropped from her hand to fall to the floor with a clatter, and she didn't seem to notice or much care as she all but flung herself at Raquel, wrapping her arms around her and crying into her shoulder.
No further questions were needed.
**********************************************
"I never thought I'd live to see the day," Major Charles said, shaking his head in amazement as he stood in the lobby of the occupied Centre. The Air Force contingent had been glad to have him along, and he'd even found the time to get caught up with some old friends. They'd already made plans to get together for dinner in Los Angeles in a week, when he'd be able to introduce them to both of his children.
"Tell me about it," Jarod agreed. "I keep expecting to wake up any minute."
"Phipps and Petrie will probably want you to come in for one final debriefing," Max told them. "After that, though... Have you actually decided what you'll be doing?"
"I thought I might start by looking for my wife," Charles replied with a smile. "Not sure about after that, yet."
"We could probably help you with that," the recently arrived Janet told him. "Actually, Amy will probably insist on it. Heck, once the news breaks, you could probably just have them relay a phone number where she could reach you, or something."
"Maybe," Charles said. He could have told her that they'd done more then enough for his family, but from what he'd picked up, they'd never see it that way.
"Where eez Amy, anyway?" Dominique asked. After Max had managed to pry her off - amidst several amused looks being directed their way - they'd come downstairs, only to be told by Janet that Amy wasn't on SL-27 anymore, though no one seemed to have any idea where she had gone.
Well, almost no one. "I think I know," Max said simply. "We'll catch up with you guys," she continued, heading for the door.
Dominique turned to the mostly silent Jeff. "Are you ze one who sent us zat message regarding Kristin?"
He blinked in confusion. "Who?"
That, she supposed, qualified as a 'no'.
**********************************************
"Hey," Amy said softly. "I know, it's been a while. Sorry I didn't come back sooner. I just... I couldn't. I'm sure I don't have to tell you what that's like."
She sighed, running a hand through her hair. "You've probably noticed by now that something's been going on. Well, believe it or not, we just toppled The Centre. Not just the building, either, but the global company." She laughed softly. "Yeah, I know. I can hardly believe it, either, and I'm kind of responsible for it."
She shifted uncomfortably. "I just... Well, you know I hate goodbyes, but this one IS kind of long overdue, isn't it? On some level, I guess I could just never stand to let you go. But now... I think I can handle it, now."
She smiled. "As ever, you were right. I did meet someone. Her name's Lucy. I think you'd like her, actually. She's just so... I love her. So much. And while I still wish we'd had a chance to have that talk..."
A gentle breeze ruffled her hair.
She chuckled faintly. "All right, all right. I get it. The ship has sailed." She paused. "I hope you're happy wherever you are now, my friend." She unselfconsciously wiped away a stray tear. "Goodbye, Tomoko."
With a sigh, she stood up and brushed off her knees. Despite how focused she'd been, she was somehow completely unsurprised when Max suddenly spoke up from behind her, "I thought I'd find you out here."
For a moment, she wondered how much Max had heard, then dismissed it as unimportant. "Yeah," she said, taking a deep, slow breath. Of course Max had been the one to find her. "Just had to..." She waved a hand absently off to the side.
"I know," Max said softly. "You about ready to get out of here?"
"Yeah, I finally am." Part of her had been trapped in this place for so long that she'd almost stopped noticing it. She allowed herself one final look at Tomoko's grave marker, then turned to follow Max.
Her long nightmare was finally over.
Winter winds have gone and faded
October skies are thoughts of grey
Tears upon my pillow laying
A child lost to pain
I'll pray for better days
Lift me up
Lead me from this place
Let your love be mercy on my face
I'm rising up, I change before your eyes
Out of darkness, standing in the light
Light
Hand of hope come and change me
Out of ashes make me whole
Lift me up and recreate me
And help me overcome
Myself, lead me from hell
Lift me up
Lead me from this place
Let your love be mercy on my face
I'm rising up, I change before your eyes
Out of darkness, standing in the light
Light
I'm rising up, I'm moving on
Give me strength to carry on
I feel the light upon my face
I hear the angels words of grace
My broken wings that learnt to fly
Lift me up and justify
I'm standing up, I'm standing out
I feel the walls comes crashing down
Lift me up
Lead me from this place
Let your love be mercy on my face
I'm rising up, I change before your eyes
Out of darkness, standing in the light
Light
Light
Light
Wow. Kind of hard to believe that's just about it, isn't it? Goodness, what a long, strange trip it's been. Glad to have had you along for the ride, and I hope you stick around for the final part. After that... I think I may finally get back to Sensory Pleasure. ;)
Next - The epilogue
Aw, heck, you know who's paired with whom by now. ;)
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*
Wow. After all this time, we've finally reached the last full chapter.
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 Thirty-One
Dominique had set the alarm on her 'watch' for exactly one minute before the invasion was scheduled to begin. Despite waiting for it all morning, she still jumped a little when it finally went off, and silenced it quickly.
It was time.
She made sure her glock was fully loaded, and that she had several spare clips located here and there on her person. Unfortunately, due to her cover, she hadn't been able to bring any larger, heavier-caliber weapons with her. Hopefully, she wouldn't be needing it at all.
She made sure she'd collected everything she'd brought with her to The Centre, then left her small office and headed out into the hall. Thankfully, it was nearly empty, with only a few office workers present. Of course, every single person that worked for The Centre - with a few rare, specific exceptions - had to be considered a threat and neutralized, and one never knew who might be armed and willing to use their weapon.
When the lights first went off, one of the workers was on her right, just passing her. He stopped dead, and she promptly elbowed him in the gut, then slammed her fists down on his skull. His head actually bounced off the floor, and she knew she wouldn't have to worry about him waking up before he'd been secured. She slipped out of her shoes and ran silently over to where she remembered the second being, and the emergency lights came on just in time to show his surprised look as her foot came flying out of a spinning side kick to head right at his face.
He was out cold before he really knew what had hit him.
The other one would be harder, as she'd obviously expended the surprise that she'd had, so she simply pulled her gun and calmly told him, "Do not move."
He very helpfully froze in place.
She headed back toward him, pausing only long enough to slip her shoes back on, then gestured with her gun. "Turn around," she ordered. He didn't hesitate to comply, no doubt thinking that the Triumvirate's pet killer had finally snapped. Or that the Triumvirate itself had come to kill everyone. She didn't really care, simply knocking him out as well before he could present any complications. The hallway was otherwise empty, and, finally feeling safe to do so, she raised her comm and said, "This eez Diabolique reporting in. I 'ave three prisoners unconscious on SL-11 and in need of securing."
"Copy that, Diabolique," Janet's voice said a moment later. "It's good to hear from you."
"It eez good to be heard from," she replied absently as she quickly frisked the unconscious men. One of them must have had... Ah! She pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket, lit one, and inhaled deeply. Oh, that was so much better.
"Backup is on the way. Go secure the elevators on that floor. There are a few people there who don't seem to know you're supposed to use the stairs in emergencies." The stairwell doors, of course, would be locked down, with Janet remotely unlocking them one at a time as needed. Dominique guessed they must have already tried the stairs, and found they couldn't get in, for some reason.
"As you wish." It was actually easier then she'd expected. They were actually happy to see her, which she attributed to the situation, and only too gladly followed her right to the waiting government agents, who had just arrived to secure her other prisoners.
That pattern would play out on several other floors, their lack of communication meaning it ended up being a surprise to them every time. That was just fine by her. She had no problem with capturing team after team of enemy forces without firing a shot.
She'd been on her way to help a team under fire when the building abruptly started to shake, and a beam of green energy punched its way straight through the heart of The Centre. She muttered a French curse that went largely unheard, then said into her comm, "And zat was...?"
There was a lengthy pause, leading her to suspect that Janet was dealing with a flood of such questions, then she heard, "I think our Perfect Score asked her girlfriend for a favor."
"Ah." Well, that made sense, she supposed. She couldn't imagine that Petrie would be especially thrilled to learn that Lucy evidently had that kind of firepower at her disposal, but that blast had helped with the current situation...
Well, Dominique wasn't about to complain.
**********************************************
Tanaka Hiroko grimaced at the sight that greeted the medical team as they entered the main security room. There were two fallen Yakuza warriors. One had been shot in the head at close range, the bullet passing clean through his skull to lodge in the wall, leaving a spray of brain tissue, bone gristle, and blood stretching from there to the body. The second ninja was in much worse condition, laying in a pool of blood. He had been impaled through the neck upon his own katana, which was just one of a hundred things she'd seen that day that would keep her up nights.
Dr. Watanabe headed immediately headed for the fiery haired DEB sprawled face down on the security console, a nurse following him while two others went to go put the corpses into body bags for removal. Hiroko, technically, was not one of the medical corps, but a member of the intelligence division of the MSDF who happened to have medical training. A number of MSDF units were rounding up any Centre vessels or aircraft - that would be in conjunction with the ASDF, she knew - that they'd discovered once they'd gained access to the computers, but intelligence had wanted at least one agent to be on hand during the raid on the main complex, to make sure everything was handled properly.
As she drifted over to the doctor's side, Hiroko decided those fears had been completely unfounded. The DEBS, as well as any other American agents that might be present, had been completely professional and worthy of respect. And she, at least, was grateful to them for alerting the Japanese government to the situation in the first place.
Watanabe's dialogue with the nurse became more urgent, and she realized that the DEB was still alive. Without waiting to be prompted, she barked out an order into her radio for a gurney to be brought down. He spared just a second to give her a grateful nod, then went back to examining the injured young woman.
The angle at which the knife had entered her body made it clear that her assailant had been in a crouching position on the floor while she had been standing. The injured woman - who, according to the radio chatter she'd heard, went by the codename Banshee - might not agree, but that had actually been very lucky for her. Thanks to the angle, the knife had missed any vital organs, though her movements afterwards and her attempts to staunch the flow of blood had pushed the blade closer to her spleen. Getting it out would thus have to be done very delicately, as it was also worryingly close to her colon.
A gurney was finally brought in and locked in place, and Hiroko assisted the corpsmen in transferring the injured Banshee as gingerly as possible onto it. With as much blood as she'd lost, and would lose after the knife was removed, it was obvious she was going to need a transfusion. As her own blood was type O-Negative, Hiroko flatly insisted on being the donor. Dr. Watanabe didn't offer much of an argument, as he certainly wanted to do everything in his power to save his patient, but she steamrolled right over even that.
The DEBS had brought to their attention a cancer that had been growing unnoticed in their midst, then volunteered to lead the charge against it, despite how thin this would cause them to spread themselves, and had done so with courage and integrity, and this young woman had been gravely injured, yet had done everything within her power to continue doing her duty as long as she could.
She had to do this for her.
Honor demanded no less.
**********************************************
This really wasn't one of her better days.
In the back of her mind, Miss Parker had always wondered if a day like this might come: When The Centre's all-mighty connections, money, and political clout might fail them, and justice would finally come for them.
Somehow, though, the possibility had never seemed real.
Not until she'd been in the middle of a video conference with her father when Amy - no, when Sekhmet - had called (and she buried a shiver even now at the memory of the young woman's voice... yes, that was someone who had grown up in The Centre, all right) and launched into her history lesson. Then the lights had gone out, the video connection had died, and The Centre had gone into lockdown.
It hadn't taken long for her to work out what had happened, and she'd quickly tried to alert security... only to discover that the phones were out. So she'd taken out her cell phone, called Sam, and had him spread the word that they were under attack as best he could. She'd been heading for the access shaft that ran up the length of The Centre when the entire complex had begun to shake, and not even two seconds later an immense blast of green energy thundered down in front of her, the shockwave it generated knocking her off her feet and sending her flying backwards.
Things had kind of gone away for a while, and when she came to, it was obvious she'd been moved somewhere else. But not captured, she noticed. Her rescuer turned out to be Frenchie herself, which pretty well cemented the idea in Parker's mind that she wasn't actually a member of the Triumvirate.
None of them would have bothered worrying about anyone but themselves.
She'd been propped up against a wall in an empty side corridor, Diabolique leaning indolently against the other wall, smoking a cigarette while giving her an inscrutable look. "Finally," she huffed. "I was beginning to wonder if you would ever wake up."
"And hello to you, too," Parker grumbled, hissing in a breath and she heaved herself to her feet, steadying herself against the wall until everything stopped spinning. "What hit me?"
"Nothing, directly. From what I 'ave seen, had the beam actually hit you, it would 'ave disintegrated you. I suspect you can thank Amy's girlfriend for zat."
Diamond, again. "I should have shot her when I had the chance," she muttered.
"Did you not try to do just zat?" Diabolique asked, sounding vaguely amused. Parker grumbled something unrepeatable under her breath, both knowing full well that she, in fact, had tried just that. "Ze situation eez much more complicated zen zat, 'owever."
"What, is Kali here, too?"
Diabolique shrugged. "I could not say. With ze sheer number of federal agents, police officers, and DEBS present, it eez difficult to pick any specific person out, especially when you are trying to remain unnoticed."
Parker was rendered speechless. It didn't last long, since this was Miss Parker, but she had to admit to being shocked. She'd gotten too used to it being just them against Jarod, she realized. As smart as he was, Jarod just didn't have the resources to combat The Centre. The best he could do was to hope to continue evading them. Amy, however...
Amy was a federal agent, a governmental employee. More then that, she was the DEBS poster girl, and had the intelligence of a Pretender combined with the very best training The Centre had ever managed to offer. And, to top it all off, she'd been off their radar for nine years, during which time she'd had ample opportunity to build support for action to be taken against them. She'd made it seem like she was going to follow Jarod's lead in order to throw them off, to distract them from what she was really doing, and they'd swallowed it completely.
"Well," a new voice said, breaking into her musings. "There's a site that countless people would have paid good money to see over the years: The Centre's ranking bitch shocked stupid." Her head whipped up to see Amy walking down the hall toward her, one her right another DEB that she vaguely remembered was named Max something or other, while on her left...
Again, she told herself that she shouldn't have been surprised. "Jarod."
"Miss Parker," he replied evenly. "Haven't seen you in a while. I was starting to think you might have forgotten about me. So I came to check on you." He half-smiled. "And brought a few friends."
It hadn't taken nearly as much convincing to talk Phipps into letting him accompany the second wave as he'd thought. Then again, the DEBS were being stretched very thin by this raid, so they could hardly afford to say no, especially to someone so familiar with The Centre.
Thankfully, he'd been able to make sure Angelo was escorted out safely. He said a silent thank you to Kali that she'd arranged to have Sydney and his patients moved out of harm's way before anything had even happened. Likely she'd done it out of tactical concern for how panicky civillians might have screwed everything up had they been there, but he liked to think that there was at least a possibility she'd done it out of compassion, or because it was the right thing to do.
"Where's schoolgirl number three?" Parker demanded, seemingly unconcerned about the two guns being aimed at her.
"She's busy," Amy replied simply. "So we snagged Jarod here as a temporary replacement so we could have a full squad for the wrap up."
That she evidently had been left for last was either a compliment or an insult, and she didn't much feel like figuring out which. "Right, because God forbid you do anything without all three of you present."
A gun was suddenly pressed against the back of her head, stilling her movements, and a cool - and distinctly French - voice corrected, "Four."
She froze. "Excuse me?"
Diabolique sounded faintly amused. "Ze DEBS teams are composed of squads of four."
Suddenly, a thousand little things made sense - amond them why little to no progress had been made on capturing Amy. "You're a DEB?" she spat coldy.
"And you are under arrest," Diabolique - or whoever she actually was - replied cheerfully. "You 'ave the right to remain silent... and I do suggest you exercise it, if only for your own sake."
Given their audience, Parker had to concede that might not be the worst idea she'd ever heard.
"You 'ave ze right to an attorny. If you cannot afford one - and since all of ze Centre's assets 'ave been frozen, and your horde of lawyers are facing their own charges, zat does seem entirely possible - one will be provided for you at no cost." She paused, then audibly smirked. "Do you understand these charges as I 'ave read zem to you?"
Since her attempts to vaporize Frenchie with the sheer force of her anger weren't working, she growled aloud, "Yes." She glared at Jarod. "You're just loving this, aren't you?"
"Watching the people who did their damndest to destroy my family and God knows how many others, who tortured and abused children as if they were just weapons or property, who thought they could play God finally get what's coming to them?" He paused, then allowed, "I don't hate it."
"Sure, you didn't know about a lot of that," Amy interjected. "And that will be factored in when a decision is made as to what to do with you. But there will be jail time involved. And not that I think you'd actually say yes, but given how deeply your father and the other higher ups mislead you regarding a good amount of what went on here, we can't really even offer you a reduced sentence in exchange for your testimony against them."
Parker forced herself to think past her anger. They'd lost. It was as simple as that. And if she really had nothing else left, she would maintain her dignity. "What about Sydney and Broots?"
Amy and Jarod traded surprised looks. "Since they had so little to do with anything, it's unlikely they'll be facing any jail terms," Amy replied. She had no intention of revealing Broots' contribution to the raid. "We may even have positions for them in LA." She paused, then smiled. "I'm sure we can have you placed in a federal prison nearby, so they can visit you."
"Oh, good. That will give me something to wake up for," she said, her biting sarcasm making it clear that, under arrest or not, Miss Parker would always be Miss Parker.
Amy could admire her determination, but it would do nothing to help her this time. "Oh, knock it off." Her eyes narrowed. "Meredith."
Parker flinched back in shock - Dominique had taken her gun away and slipped a set of plastic restraints on her, so that action didn't result in her getting shot - and the others, save for Jarod, were similarly surprised. Amy smirked. "Amazing the things one can learn while being trained as an assassin and a spy about those responsible for that training, isn't it?"
"Why not ever use that name, then?" Max asked. "Doesn't sound like there's anything wrong with it."
"Not directly, no," Amy agreed. "Of course, the most common nickname that would come from it would be 'Merry,' and if there's one thing our Miss Parker here isn't..."
"This is true," Max allowed. Turning to Dom, she said, "Get her out of here." Dom acknowledged the order with a nod, then pushed Parker along down the hall, a pair of heavily armed Army officers meeting them at the corner and escorting them on their way. Raising her comm, she said, "Angora, this is Panther, come in."
"Go ahead, Panther."
"Is Parker senior still secure?"
"Copy that. There had been a few Sweepers gathering around the outside of his office trying to get in, but they were neutralized... by another Sweeper, apparantly."
Even Amy seemed surprised. "Are you sure?" Max asked.
"Well, I guess he could be a Cleaner. I'm honestly not sure what the distinction is. But he's definitely one of their people. He doesn't seem to be presenting our people with any kind of threat."
Max frowned, considering, then said, "This I have to see."
And sure enough, by the time they got up there - and Max had to silently admit that she was a little impressed by the sheer destruction the 'Diamond Ray' (or whatever it was actually called) had caused to the more fragile building atop the sub-levels - they could see that Janet was right. Three woozy and injured Sweepers (and one man who looked like a copy boy) were being lead away by FBI agents, while a few SWAT team members stood there facing a lone, seemingly unarmed man who looked to be in his mid-forties. He didn't seem especially upset by their presence, or the occasional weapon being pointed his way.
Max looked him over, then studied Amy, who was also studying him. Recognition set in, and the blonde shook her head. "Well, I'll be damned," she muttered, a smile forming on her lips. She fearlessly walked forward, parting the SWAT team with ease. "I should have known it would be you," she said, amused affection evident in her tone.
He and Max blinked in unison. "Do I know you?" he asked, confused.
She grinned. "I'll admit, I have changed a bit over the last nine years, but think about it."
Astonishment spread over his face. "You... They said you were..."
"That's what I wanted them to think," she said, walking forward to give him a hug. "It's good to see that you're still alive, too, Jeff."
Oh. Max relaxed, and the SWAT team seemed to take their cue from her. So this was the semi-famous Jeff Cooper, Amy's old driver. Taking a chance, she ordered the cops, "Stand down." She and Jarod moved up to join Amy, who had let Jeff go and taken a step back. "I guess thanks are in order," she said.
"No, this was just..." He waved a hand around to indicate where the downed Sweepers had been. "When I figured out what was happening, well..." He smiled sadly at Amy. "After so many years, it finally seemed like the right time to act."
"Actually, I meant in regards to taking care of our girl here," Max corrected him, nudging Amy with her hip. "Trust me, that alone would have earned you a good number of friends."
"I could have done a lot more then I did," he disagreed, shaking his head.
"It hardly matters anymore," Amy said simply. "This time of your life is over, now."
"Kind of hard to believe this is all happening, isn't it?" he asked, speaking to Jarod for the first time in years.
Jarod had to smile as he shook the other man's hand. "It really is."
"Well," Amy said, a vaguely predatory edge to her smile. "There is one last thing we have to do, isn't there?" She looked past them at the doors to Mister Parker's office.
"Time to chop off this snake's head."
**********************************************
She was drifting.
It felt like there was something she was supposed to be doing, something important, but she simply couldn't remember what it was. Something...
She lost it.
At first there was pretty much nothing, her mind too tired to serve up much of anything. Soon, though, there came fragments of memories. She remembered her sixth birthday, when she'd "accidentally" dumped a bowl of ice cream over her brother's head. The first day of high school. Graduation. Heading off to college.
Meeting Kathleen.
She remembered her team, remembered their first mission, all the fun they'd had over the last three years. But her thoughts kept straying back to Kathleen.
She'd always suspected there was something a little different about herself then most. She'd never been as into guys as her friends while growing up, and has occasionally caught herself staring at some of the prettier girls in school. She'd generally written it off as admiration, wanting to be like them. And that wasn't entirely untrue. But when she'd met Kathleen...
She'd felt nauseaous and giddy and had barely been able to get any sleep the first night after they'd been assigned as roommates. They became friends almost immediately, and she was able to push her strange feelings into the background... mostly. So she had a crush on her roomie, she'd decided. Embarrassing, perhaps, but she was confident she'd get over it in time.
Except that she hadn't. If anything, it had gotten worse. And when it was revealed that Kathleen was gay... She'd nearly driven herself insane wondering if she'd actually had a chance. That Kathleen had roomed with her that long and never shown any particular interest, however, hadn't boded well for that possibility.
Until Kathleen kissed her. And good Lord, what a kiss...
Kathleen was in danger.
She wasn't sure where the thought came from for a moment, then everything else came flooding back. They were in Japan. On a mission. She'd been stabbed, and Kathleen was...
Gradually, she became aware of the plastic and metal of the gurney underneath her, and, with what felt like much more effort then it should have required, forced her eyes open.
There were several Japanese people hovering around her that she quickly deduced were doctors. Judging by the lack of pain she was feeling, they must have been carrying some really good drugs with them.
"Welcome back," a lightly accented voice commented from off to the side. "You had us all worried for a minute, there."
Turning her head to look seemed a little easier then opening her eyes had, so she guessed she was starting to feel better. An attractive woman in her mid-to-late thirties was sitting in her former chair, and a nurse bandaging her arm and putting away a needle and IV of some kind gave a clue as to why she was sitting down. "Who...?"
"Hiroko. Tanaka Hiroko." She smiled. "You would be Banshee, then?"
She smiled back. It was a little weak, but it was there. "Aye, that's me. You can call me Monica, though."
"Very well, Monica-san. Do you remember what happened?"
"Do you mean about the mission in general, or how I got a knife stuck in my side? Because the answer would be yes to both." She paused, gathering her courage. "How... How bad is it?"
Hiroko and the man who had to be the doctor had a rapid back and forth exchange in Japanese, then she said, "Well, you're a very lucky young woman. The blade managed to avoid hitting any major organs, though it did scrape one of your ribs. The injury will take some time to heal, but once it does, except for some scarring, you'll be as good as new."
She let her head fall back as she went limp with relief. "Oh, good," she whispered. "Thank him for me, please, would you?" As Hiroko did so, Monica reflected.
She supposed she had gotten lucky, if only in comparison to what might have happened if the knife had hit her an inch or three higher or lower. And she could live with a scar.
Kathleen, she was certain, wouldn't care at all.
That reminded her...
"What's going on out there, anyway?" she asked. "I'm supposed to be-"
"You are supposed to be resting, that is what you are supposed to be doing," Hiroko told her sternly, resting a hand on her shoulder to keep her still. "Stay put."
"I have no intention of trying to be a bloody hero and leaping up off this gurney to march out there," Monica assured her. If she did that, she'd be a 'bloody' hero in more ways then one.
"Glad to hear it."
No sooner had Hiroko let her go, however, then Monica inhaled sharply. Now she remembered. Kathleen was in danger - the whole team was! "My team..." she said, fighting not to squirm. She hadn't been kidding before, she knew better then to think she was in any kind of shape for a fight. But she needed to know what was happening.
"You are referring to the DEBS in the combat practice area?" She nodded repeatedly. "Ah." She hit a few keys on the keyboard in front of her, and one of the monitors changed to show a wide-angle view of the huge gym. "Our forces are moving into that area now, but there seems to be little to do beyond... mopping up, I believe is the expression."
The image on the screen backed up her words, and Monica sighed in relief. Oh, thank God... "Thank you."
Hiroko shook her head. "No, thank you. We have achieved a momentous victory today, and that is thanks to you and your people. That will not be forgotten any time soon."
Monica had no idea how to respond to that, so she simply smiled. "Our pleasure." With some effort, she moved her arm up to rest on her chest near her collarbone. "Kathy?" she began. If the mission was fairly well over, why bother using code names? Besides, Kathleen would be the only one that would hear her. Well, her and anyone standing near her, but who cared? "Are ye still there?"
There was a stunned silence, then, "Monica? Are you... Is everything...?"
"I'm fine, love," she said softly. "Well... I won't be dancing any time soon, but I'll recover." She had to grin at the resulting torrent of muttered thanks and occasional profanity.
She stole a look at Hiroko, who had to know that this really wasn't appropriate behavior for two squadmates, but the Japanese woman merely smiled back at her.
After all, she'd earned this.
**********************************************
Raquel almost started laughing when the Japanese forces finally started streaming into the not-quite-a-dojo. Better late then never, she supposed, but it might have been nice if they'd shown up when there were still more then a handful of bad guys on their feet.
She was too tired to complain, though.
Kali, to her mild annoyance, barely seemed to be breathing hard. "How do you DO that?" she demanded.
Kali looked amused. "Do what?"
"That!" Raquel waved a hand aimlessly at her. "All that fighting, and you're just..."
"Ah. Endurance training." The words were clipped, and thought her expression never wavered, her eyes seemed to chill briefly, discouraging further such questions.
Raquel suspected she didn't want to know. "So..." she began as various Japanese agents milling about around them. "That's it, huh?"
"Yeah." And unless she was seeing things, that was Nayana peeking out from behind Kali's eyes. "There are probably still some pockets of resistance here and there around the globe, but for all intents and purposes, The Centre is dead."
Raquel dared a small smile. "How's it feel?"
Kali considered that. "Strange," she admitted. "Good, but..."
"Uncertain?" Raquel guessed.
"I suppose so. The one constant in my life, whether I liked it or not... is gone."
"Redefining yourself sounds like a scary prospect."
"I'm sure it does," she said, though she herself didn't really get scared anymore. By anything. It was a little boring, really - even life or death situations only gave her a mild adrenaline rush these days.
Raquel paused, then gave up and blurted out, "I don't want you to go."
"I know," she said softly. Louder, she added, "But I can't stay."
"You could... if you wanted..." It was obvious by her tone, though, that Raquel knew she was stretching the truth almost to the breaking point. She tried to smile it off. "Of course, if you did, I might end up having to arrest you, if that data core you found didn't do what you hoped it would for you."
Kali smirked, and it almost melted her. "Would you?"
Meep, her brain informed her. She shifted uncomfortably. "Don't go," she whispered.
Nayana - and it was definitely Nayana now - shook her head in seeming fond amusement and placed a hand under Raquel's chin. "Innocent little lamb," she breathed, surprising Raquel again. She'd once idly looked up the meaning of her name, and knew that both 'innocent' and 'lamb' applied... even if they didn't really seem to anymore, at least as far as she was concerned. (Nayana, she'd found out the day she'd learned that was Kali's real name, meant 'one with attractive eyes', and she really had to give Nayana's parents credit for that one, as it fit her perfectly.)
Then Nayana was kissing her, and she forgot about everything else.
"Raquel, where are you?" Kathleen called from somewhere behind her, hidden by the crowd.
Reluctantly breaking away from Nayana, she half-turned and called, "I'm over here!" She opened her eyes and turned back to Nayana.
Who was gone.
There hadn't been so much as a sound or a whisper of movement, but she was nonetheless utterly and inexplicably gone.
"Son of a bitch!"
"What? What's wrong?" Kathleen asked as she, Bethany, and a representative of the Japanese forces arrived. "Are you all right?"
"Fine." She sighed. "It's just... She was here. She was right here!"
"Who was?" Bethany asked. As if she didn't know.
"Kali. She was here," Raquel said, gesturing at the space Nayana had been occupying. "And then... poof! Gone."
"That's impossible," Bethany countered. "With this many people around, someone would have had to see her leave."
That didn't mean they would have stopped her, though, Raquel knew. After all, why would they? If they didn't think she was a strangely attired DEB, they would at least consider her their ally, and thus would have let her go unimpeded. But Bethany was in a silly - or possibly euphoric - mood, it seemed, so there was no point in saying any of that.
"Uh, you guys," Kathleen said, kneeling down to retrieve something from the floor. She studied it, then handed it to Raquel.
It wasn't much to look at. Just a thin, silver metal band. One side said PANTHEON - SL-27, while on the opposite side was simply KALI. While it was entirely possible that it was just something Nayana had wanted to get rid of, a symbolic way of trying to leave Kali behind, that she'd left it right there...
Raquel smiled.
**********************************************
He'd been expecting her for a while, now, but it was still something of a surprise when Amy yanked open his office doors and boldly strode in as if she owned the place.
Given the current state of affairs, perhaps that wasn't too far off the mark.
Somehow, Parker wasn't surprised to see that Jarod had come with her. That even one of his own people had betrayed him and sided with them barely phased him.
He wondered if he wasn't going into shock. Everything seemed so disconnected, as if none of it was real.
Oh, but it was real. It was all too real.
"I was wondering when you'd get here," he said tiredly, not bothering to rise from behind his desk. "I was beginning to think you might have forgotten about me."
"Oh, we were saving the best for last," Amy all but purred, striding up to his desk and aiming her gun at his head.
Max cautiously approached her. "You don't really want to do this, do you?"
Amy considered that. "I do," she replied, tightening her grip on the gun. "I really, really do."
"It might be nice if we could take at least one member of The Centre's leadership in alive, though, don't you think?"
He already knew what had happened to Raines. But that meant... "The Triumvirate-"
"Is dead," Amy finished. "You can thank Kali for that. Well, that and their stupidity and general evilness that lead to their downfall. She also, I suspect, was behind what happened to Lyle."
His blood chilled. "What are you talking about?"
Amy - or perhaps it was Sekhmet - lowered her gun, evidently deciding she could take more pleasure out of his suffering. "One of our teams found him in a small office on SL-10. Someone had cut out his heart and fed it to him." She paused. "Which I suppose, considering the canabilistic aspect to some of his crimes, would be suitably ironic."
Parker struggled to process that, trying his damndest not to show weakness in front of this... whatever she was. No matter how he might have felt about Lyle, he had still been his son, and he was still dead. "And my daughter?" he rasped.
"What, you mean dear, sweet Merry?" He glared at her, but she only laughed, though the emotion didn't touch her eyes. "Oh, she's fine. I'm sure she'll fit in quite nicely in jail. Unlike, say, you."
"But then, being locked up against your will and monitored constantly isn't for everyone," Jarod added in a hard tone.
So, this was to be how The Centre would end. With a bang and then a whimper. So be it. He was a Parker, he thought as he slowly stood, and Parkers did not show weakness.
Amy decided to let Jarod cuff him while she read him his rights. It seemed appropriate. As the SWAT team lead him away, Amy dropped down into his chair, letting out a slow breath.
That was it. The last piece of The Centre had been removed. They were actually... done. The enormity of what they'd just accomplished hit her, and she had to fight down a hysterical giggle.
Time enough for that later. There was one thing... Actually, two things she still had to do before she could leave. She rose and left the office without a word, sensing that the others were following her. "Uh, Amy..." Max began.
She stopped and turned to face them. "This is something I have to do alone," she said with a sad smile. "I have to go back down there." She paused, then added, "I have to say goodbye."
Max nodded slowly. "All right. And... good luck."
She smiled again. "Thanks." She turned and began to walk away, calling over her shoulder, "I could say the same to you."
"Wh-" was all she was able to get out before Dominique, who'd just tracked them down after making sure Miss Parker was firmly in custody, spun her around and kissed the daylights out of her.
**********************************************
"Kathy, really, I'm going to be all right!" Monica insisted, trying to keep her worried girlfriend from smothering her with kisses. She cast a pleading look at the amused Hiroko. "Will you tell her I'm going to be all right?" she requested.
"She is going to be all right," Hiroko repeated dutifully, though laughter lingered in her eyes.
Kathleen finally managed to get herself under control. "I'm sorry. I just..."
"I know," Monica said softly. "But I did sort of promise you somethng, didn't I?"
Kathleen smiled reflexively. "More or less," she agreed.
Bethany's phone rang, and she walked out into the hall to answer it. At Raquel's inquiring look, she said, "Something about Mark, I think. Don't worry. He knows he's not going to be getting out of our next date even if he broke something."
And while that may have seemed like a rather arrogant, controlling thing to say, Raquel knew that she meant she'd move the date to his bedside in the hospital while she took care of him if she had to.
They were currently inside the security room, watching the final cleanup on the monitors. Well, Raquel thought, 'final' wasn't exactly an accurate term. The Japanese authorities would no doubt spend weeks taking this place apart. But they'd be doing it without her team. They would be leaving as soon as the doctors declared Monica stable enough for transport, to go home and enjoy a very well deserved rest. "How are you feeling, chica?"
"A little better," Monica decided. "They have some pretty good drugs here."
Raquel grinned. "Glad to hear it. But don't worry, I'm sure we can come up with someth-"
"NO!"
Heads whipped around to look at Bethany, who looked like someone had just punched her in the gut... with the knife that had been taken out of Monica's side. Her earlier confidence had been blasted away, leaving her looking like a terrified child.
Raquel was immediately heading over to her. "But... No, he can't be... But he was wearing... No, they didn't have anything like that here that I noticed..." Her voice started to break. "He promised..."
"Oh, no," Monica whispered.
"What's wrong?" Hiroko asked, confused.
"Mark's her boyfriend," Kathleen said sadly. "Or he was."
Bethany's phone dropped from her hand to fall to the floor with a clatter, and she didn't seem to notice or much care as she all but flung herself at Raquel, wrapping her arms around her and crying into her shoulder.
No further questions were needed.
**********************************************
"I never thought I'd live to see the day," Major Charles said, shaking his head in amazement as he stood in the lobby of the occupied Centre. The Air Force contingent had been glad to have him along, and he'd even found the time to get caught up with some old friends. They'd already made plans to get together for dinner in Los Angeles in a week, when he'd be able to introduce them to both of his children.
"Tell me about it," Jarod agreed. "I keep expecting to wake up any minute."
"Phipps and Petrie will probably want you to come in for one final debriefing," Max told them. "After that, though... Have you actually decided what you'll be doing?"
"I thought I might start by looking for my wife," Charles replied with a smile. "Not sure about after that, yet."
"We could probably help you with that," the recently arrived Janet told him. "Actually, Amy will probably insist on it. Heck, once the news breaks, you could probably just have them relay a phone number where she could reach you, or something."
"Maybe," Charles said. He could have told her that they'd done more then enough for his family, but from what he'd picked up, they'd never see it that way.
"Where eez Amy, anyway?" Dominique asked. After Max had managed to pry her off - amidst several amused looks being directed their way - they'd come downstairs, only to be told by Janet that Amy wasn't on SL-27 anymore, though no one seemed to have any idea where she had gone.
Well, almost no one. "I think I know," Max said simply. "We'll catch up with you guys," she continued, heading for the door.
Dominique turned to the mostly silent Jeff. "Are you ze one who sent us zat message regarding Kristin?"
He blinked in confusion. "Who?"
That, she supposed, qualified as a 'no'.
**********************************************
"Hey," Amy said softly. "I know, it's been a while. Sorry I didn't come back sooner. I just... I couldn't. I'm sure I don't have to tell you what that's like."
She sighed, running a hand through her hair. "You've probably noticed by now that something's been going on. Well, believe it or not, we just toppled The Centre. Not just the building, either, but the global company." She laughed softly. "Yeah, I know. I can hardly believe it, either, and I'm kind of responsible for it."
She shifted uncomfortably. "I just... Well, you know I hate goodbyes, but this one IS kind of long overdue, isn't it? On some level, I guess I could just never stand to let you go. But now... I think I can handle it, now."
She smiled. "As ever, you were right. I did meet someone. Her name's Lucy. I think you'd like her, actually. She's just so... I love her. So much. And while I still wish we'd had a chance to have that talk..."
A gentle breeze ruffled her hair.
She chuckled faintly. "All right, all right. I get it. The ship has sailed." She paused. "I hope you're happy wherever you are now, my friend." She unselfconsciously wiped away a stray tear. "Goodbye, Tomoko."
With a sigh, she stood up and brushed off her knees. Despite how focused she'd been, she was somehow completely unsurprised when Max suddenly spoke up from behind her, "I thought I'd find you out here."
For a moment, she wondered how much Max had heard, then dismissed it as unimportant. "Yeah," she said, taking a deep, slow breath. Of course Max had been the one to find her. "Just had to..." She waved a hand absently off to the side.
"I know," Max said softly. "You about ready to get out of here?"
"Yeah, I finally am." Part of her had been trapped in this place for so long that she'd almost stopped noticing it. She allowed herself one final look at Tomoko's grave marker, then turned to follow Max.
Her long nightmare was finally over.
Winter winds have gone and faded
October skies are thoughts of grey
Tears upon my pillow laying
A child lost to pain
I'll pray for better days
Lift me up
Lead me from this place
Let your love be mercy on my face
I'm rising up, I change before your eyes
Out of darkness, standing in the light
Light
Hand of hope come and change me
Out of ashes make me whole
Lift me up and recreate me
And help me overcome
Myself, lead me from hell
Lift me up
Lead me from this place
Let your love be mercy on my face
I'm rising up, I change before your eyes
Out of darkness, standing in the light
Light
I'm rising up, I'm moving on
Give me strength to carry on
I feel the light upon my face
I hear the angels words of grace
My broken wings that learnt to fly
Lift me up and justify
I'm standing up, I'm standing out
I feel the walls comes crashing down
Lift me up
Lead me from this place
Let your love be mercy on my face
I'm rising up, I change before your eyes
Out of darkness, standing in the light
Light
Light
Light
Wow. Kind of hard to believe that's just about it, isn't it? Goodness, what a long, strange trip it's been. Glad to have had you along for the ride, and I hope you stick around for the final part. After that... I think I may finally get back to Sensory Pleasure. ;)
Next - The epilogue