Private Right Death Before

[Amea Virou]

[ A continuation of: Bootup Sequence ]​

Three shots across a blackened sky, one of which was hers. The pain wasn’t noticeable until it came kicking in full force like a ship out of hyperspace. Overwhelmed in her pain there was little that Kaili could do but stare upon the bloodied hands that covered her chest to keep the blood from pouring out. One second passed, two seconds passed. As the moment dragged out she glanced upon her opponent’s beaten form in surprise as ounce after ounce slowly clogged her throat. The realization of death that came with it felt more and more real for each passing heartbeat that struggled to push her last few inches of life through her system.

Worn blonde locks brushed against pale dirtied cheeks as with bewildered eyes she slowly staggered backwards, too stubborn to die. On the ground before her lay the nearly unconscious body of her opponent. Next to her there was the smoking blaster that she had used to take Kaili’s life, and in a brief moment of sorrow, a shot of regret burned against the blonde woman’s nervous system. Her legs gave way, her head struck the pavement and with it the nightmare came to an end.

A panicked gasp echoed around her worn-down bedroom as Kaili jolted up into a seated position and clutched the blanket that had covered her. The dreams had started to turn far too lucid to be just dreams. She knew that the force was trying its damndest to bring the two halves into one, but it didn’t quite know how yet. There was not a doubt in Kaili’s mind that what she was experiencing was in fact no dreams at all but vision. They were glimpses of the past, the present, and the future of who Kaili once was and who she would become.

This warning was the most recurring one. She jumped out of bed with newfound purpose, a need to right what she had seen with her own mind to be wrong. Amea was a tumor that needed to be excised, a lie given life of its own with no sense of repercussion. A rogue variable with no function or definition, stuck between instances that didn’t exist. She was in misery and pain, and Kaili would be the one to help her out of it.

All she needed was a plan. Although fatigue gripped at her there were alternatives to sleep. Runi would have despised it, but what Runi didn’t know couldn’t hurt her. The blonde woman sifted through a nearby cupboard to find what she needed, a small cylindrical battery that she quickly plugged into a home-made device that emptied the charge against her skin. The force kicked to life, absorbed the energy into something more manageable, a quick-fix of energy to stave off her impulses for a while longer.

Her hands found the top of her drawing table and she leaned in with a frustrated sigh. The plans had been made but there was something missing and she couldn’t for the life of her understand what it was. With a flick of her wrist she pulled the pen back into her hand and continued sketching.

There existed a scalpel.
There existed a tumor.
There was no other alternative.

 

[Amea Virou]

Three slices, flipped evenly to ensure an even crisp. If done wrong it made it painfully difficult to get the fork to pierce through, and yet if done right it would be just enough for the soft runny yolk to soften it up once you had let your knife pierce the membrane that kept it all together in a neat little hill reminiscent of water drop resting upon a surface that rejected it. Once the juices of the tomato were cut free and the beans that were dipped in sauce were allowed to join in it was complete. When topped off with a cup of golden-brown liquid that both smelled and tasted of vanilla and bergamot, it was a meal worth killing for.

The hot liquid brushed against Amea’s lips for a moment as she took a sip with a content smile. Her eyes glanced up at Evelyn on the other side of the table before she let her fork pierce through the bacon on her plate.

“She is setting up a trap for me.” Amea mumbled with the food in her mouth. “The dreams have started to become... Weird. I see that she is wanting to do something, keeps leaning over the worktable as if she was about to come up with some big plan or something.”

She chewed the food down and swallowed, took another bite and then a sip of her tea. It felt so wrong that despite everything she felt alright. That despite having lost someone, that despite Loske having gone AWOL, and despite having some blonde woman try and kill her, Amea was allowed these brief moments of happiness still. The corner of her lips curled into a crooked smile before she took another bite of the food.

“I want to spring it.” She mumbled but quickly raised her hand, dropped her knife to calm Evelyn down. “No, not like that. She wants a fight, she gets a fight. I can handle her, I need to end this.”

The extended arm lowered towards the table as she considered Evelyn’s response. As her hand slowly opened she would continue to wrap it around the one that slowly crept into it.

“You know that I wouldn’t do anything to risk this. I can do this.”

 

[Amea Virou]

How did you trap someone who knew there was a trap being set for them? Kaili dragged a tired hand across her forehead to wipe off the sweats from her brow and then glanced down at the small rug next to her workstation. This body was weak and unprepared in comparison to the host that had stolen her life. Amea, for all the disdain that Kaili had for her, still had years worth of physical conditioning where Amea had none. Her muscles were in shape but they were not hers, they were not something she had any form of control over. In some regards fine motoring was off, but that was really just the least bothersome issue.

Her face was no longer the same. It had taken her a while to realize, but the face that Kaili had once seen in the mirror looked only vaguely familiar to the one she had once called her own. The shape was there but the content was not. The amber eyes and the nose, but not the jawline. Not the mouth or cheeks. At first she hadn’t liked it, but the more that she had gotten used to it in the mirror, the more she found herself… Admiring it.

This newfound self-love had shocked her at first, terrified her of her own vanity, but as the days passed she felt herself fall deeper into a sense of confidence from it. Used to be that the only time she felt beautiful was in the arms of the woman that she loved, when Allyson had told her as such. But now, in this rundown apartment located where the putrid rain waters of the topside residential areas gathered, Kaili could look in the mirror and admire herself.

She caught herself in a small mirror on the wall and ran a hand down her sides, along her waist and hip with a content smile before she realized what the trap needed. Amea was a woman who lacked moral and respect. She pretended she loved someone that had given her everything yet been provided nothing. She used people, and people was what Kaili was short of.

What she needed was a proxy. Something that could take care of the intruder, preferably without any violence, without Kaili having to do a thing about it.

 

[Amea Virou]

There was a palpable sense of apprehension in the room as Kaili ran the plan with Andro. Not because she doubted it would work but because she knew what she was asking of him. Amea was by all rights the individual that Andro had once known to be ‘Kaili Talith’, and yet she had forsaken that vow. This new Kaili was not so shy to return, not quite so afraid of facing the empty rooms of her former home if it meant that she could reclaim the normalcy of the life she had once known.

“So,” Kaili said and let out a deep breath. “Do you understand everything so far?”

Andro furrowed his brows for a while before he finally eased up and began to nod in deep thought. It was clear he didn’t like where this was going but he also didn’t seem to disapprove. If this Amea that Kaili had mentioned didn’t even care for his people — or rather, her own people — anymore, then was she truly who he thought her to be? This Kaili next to him was different from what he had expected her to be, and yet she certainly lined up a lot more on the track of what he had expected of her than this brunette that she spoke of.

“She will come in through here. The droids engage with her and hopefully can put her down on the spot, here.” She put the chess pieces down on the map and looked back up at Andro before she placed him down on the map with a king. “You will be here.”

“Keeping a lookout, nothing more.” He added to finish her sentence.

“Exactly. If she makes it past them, we go to plan B. You get out of there, and I lead her to our secondary spot.”

“The arena?” Andro asked and looked up at the blonde.

“Precisely. I got some of the others to set up a wide space over by the—”

“The hole to the planet’s core or whatever.” Andro shrugged.

“Right. That.” Kaili said and cleared her throat. “I should be more than a match for her, but expect her to put up a fight. You get yourself into position on this rooftop.” She said and brought up a hologram of the spot. “Shoot her the second you get the chance.”

“Isn’t that sort of…”

“Dishonorable?” Kaili finished his sentence. “Only a fool fights fair in a dustbowl.”

“So, that’s it?” Andro asked. “We have all we need?”

“Yep.” Kaili nodded. “Send the signal out, she will know who it is.”

Andro gave the woman a slow nod and reached into his pocket to withdraw a small comms device.

“Yeah, it’s me. Got a frequency for ya. Mhm, it’s time to roll.”