Snippet #2781574

Jason could not see a thing. He stared in the distance, but the mist surrounding him did not allow his senses to work properly. He felt stressed. Even though he could not see them, he knew people were running past him, their faces hidden. It took a bit before he smelled that what he thought was mist, was actually smoke. It burned his lungs with every breath, feeling this could be worse than the occasional cigarette he smoked. He stared and pinched his eyes almost to a close. The smoke made his eyes tear up, but he could swear he could see the fire that must have caused the smoke. A glowing warmth in the distance explained why people were running in the opposite direction. He felt he should do the same, but he was not able to move. There was something he had to do first, but his mind was blank, like every thought was replaced by the smoke around him.

Then he saw her face. Not in front of him, and not running past him, but in his head. The girl he needs to save, the girl that was in more trouble then she herself realized. Suddenly finding his feet he started moving forward. Not slowly, but running himself, in the direction of the fire.

The light became clearer and clearer as he neared her. He arrived at a clearing, a market place. In the middle was the fire that seemed to burn at 1000 degrees. In the dead center of the fire, he could see her. He stopped, not realizing if she was in the fire, or if she was the fire. He could see her face, but could not hear what she said. The sound around him was one of screams, crackling fire, and houses im- or exploding. She was crying, strange that the tears did not evaporate as soon as they left her eyes. She was in a panic, her mouth wide open in the silent scream.

Jason ran forward, going slower and slower as if stopped by an invisible force. He looked around and saw her, the other woman. He couldn’t hear her either, but her mouth was moving quickly. He just knew that it was her that slowed him down. He tried to grab something from his belt, but he did not find the gun there that he sometimes had. Instead he felt the bow on his back, and the quiver filled with arrows. He took the bow and put an arrow across it. He was no Robin Hood, but he was decent at handling the instrument. He aimed at the woman, feeling his head pounding more every second. His heart was coming out of his chest, and he heard the beat of it in his head, faster and faster. As he aimed he felt the force of the fire intensify. The knocking in his head became louder. While still aiming he tried to bring up his shoulder to cover his ears, but it didn’t work. He dropped the bow as he brought his hands up. As he fell to his knees in pain, he felt the floor underneath him, and woke up.

It took a few moments before he realized it had been a dream. His eyes still felt blinded by the light he had seen. And the pounding in his head hadn’t stopped, as if he could still hear it. It was another few seconds before he noticed that what he heard was not in his head, but someone knocking on the door. Jason got up and walked to the door, only realizing now he had been sleeping on the couch. As he opened the door a blur of curly hair burst through it.

”How the flying fuck did you arrange this?” Lucy went past him and landed herself comfortably on the couch. Most people would be shocked at seeing her like this, she was relaxed the moment she entered. When she was on missions she was far more serious and controlling, and a lot of agents hated her for it. They felt nepotism was at play with her, but objectively she was just one of the best in the field. As their missions went on, Jason always had the feeling he needed to keep her humanity in check. Following rules was one thing, but Jason always thought humans were doing the job since they could make decisions based on emotions. Lucy had a tendency to become too robotic. Thankfully, Jason's presence changed her attitude to the better (according to Jason).
”Welcome to my humble abode.” Jason replied softly, closing the door behind her. He saw she was still in mission gear, dressed as a Norse woman from the 1100’s. He could swear she was Lagertha of Norway, or at least she could have inspired the myth.

”So, here I am, fighting on the snowy battlefield, when I get a message that I am needed back here. Then, when I do arrive back in Movement, they tell me to directly report to you.”
Jason responded with a cheeky smile, showing as much of a laugh as his still pounding head allowed him to. She caught his smile: ”Yes, you heard me right, report!” She paused another few seconds to let the message sink in.
”I never thought they would let us do a mission together again, and now they pull me out the field for just that reason. What the hell is going on? By the way, totally good to see you of course…” she finished with a smile of herself.

Jason opened his mouth to start explaining. He told her everything. From Mr. Hassini choosing him for a special investigation, to his travel to NYC, and the adventures in the 60’s. Lucy showed shock when he told her he was knocked down by one of the girls. She knew he was normally able to hold his own. When he told her about the girl emanating light, she looked in thought, and kept most of that same look until he was done explaining.

She moved over to his couch to sit next to him. With her hand she moved his head down, and she inspected the wound. ”Well, you washed away most of the blood, just some left in your hairline. If it wasn’t for that, I couldn’t have said anything had happened to your head. Still the same ugly and old face, but at least fully intact.” She laughed at her own joke.
”Hey, don’t make me regret calling you in for help.” he said, as Lucy moved back to the other couch. ”Anyway, I am not sure what to think about my mission. Calling for your help was a long shot, and I didn’t think it would work. I did it half to test how serious they were about this mission. And from the result I can say…, pretty serious.” his forehead frowned as he went deeper into thought.

”Jason, I know you, you are smelling conspiracies again.” When he lifted his shoulders, she threw her hands to the air. ”Can you never assume a mission is just a mission? There doesn’t have to be a deeper agenda or secret about it. They discovered a new way of time traveling, and naturally they want to know all about it. Let’s leave it at that. Anywho…. Seems like your girl is in trouble. Even if she was working with the other woman, it doesn’t sound like they are totally on one line. You don’t think it was a good cop, bad cop situation?”

Jason shook his head. ”No way, first of all, we are the cops, not them. They were too shocked and unprepared to have come up with that. You and me have played it before, and even then, you can see that the look of the good cop is not a believable one. You can only pull it off when the subject is scared. And I am sure I neither was, nor looked scared of the situation.” As he let his head hang down a bit he whispered: ”I just hope she is okay…, and careful.”

He got up and walked to the fridge, taking out some orange juice, Lucy’s favorite drink. As he handed her the glass, he continued. ”Anyway, testing how serious this case is was only half of the reason I asked for you. Although I have been here for quite a while, I haven’t dealt with magic users much. And I had the idea you did…” he looked at her questioningly.
She looked like she was in doubt, as if what she wanted to say couldn’t be said. ”I know less than you might think. Yes, I have dealt with magic users, but every time I did, the people were completely different. And also, the way they used magic was completely different. It is not as exact as the science we are used to. I was tasked to get two of them, but one I never found.” she fell silent. She stopped talking and Jason raised his eyebrows.
”And?..... That’s one, what about the other one.” He was getting anxious, the more time went on, the more he realized he had no idea about this stuff.
”The other one died, Jason. I shot him. He…attacked one of us, and I did not see another way of stopping him.” The way in which she spoke stunned Jason. He knew this girl from her early childhood. She was caring, reasonable and smart. Killing had never been her way, and he was shocked to hear her confession. He thought he could hear the shaking of her voice.

”I…wasn’t aware you ever killed anyone. That never happened in our missions, although there have been opportunities for it. You know I have, even when I really didn’t want to. I just didn’t think you ever would.” He took a sip of his own drink, not really knowing what to say next. It was easier talking to Lucy when she was her happy cheerful self.
”Sorry Jason, but I don’t think you really understand. Dealing with magic-users is different. They can be explosive in nature, and we have little idea of what they can do. If someone is close to dying and you have no idea how to stop it, a bullet might be the only thing.”
Her words made Jason think back to his dream. He had reached out to his bow himself, and aimed it at the woman. He was ready to shoot her, so what Lucy was saying wasn’t that unbelievable. Still, he did not want Lucy to know. Not that he was ashamed, but he was happier to keep her feeling guilty. Murder and death needed to be the last option, the taboo, the final thing in order to save the situation.
”It’s difficult. They are scared of us, and we are scared of them. You know as well as I do that most Travelers are not happy to give up what they are doing, and exchanging it with going along with someone they don’t know. Most people we look for end up coming 'cause there is no option left. For magic-users it seems there is always an option left. I actually asked to be removed from the case after that. I needed some time…”

”When was this?” Jason asked softly and carefully.
”About a year ago…” she responded, not looking him in the eyes.
”WHAT? A fucking year ago, and now you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me earlier? You need someone on your side to work through this. You can’t just do every thing by yourself, you need to count on the people around you.” he was angry. He thought he was a close friend, a confidant, someone who was inside, but outside at the same time.
”Bullshit Jason, don’t be such a hypocrite. You are not really the sharing type yourself. I needed to deal with this and I did. You know that if I would have told you, everyone would have known. Not because you would tell anyone, but secrets are only secret if there is one person who knows it. This place is gossip central, it’s like people live at the water cooler. I can’t afford to show that kind of weakness around here. Maybe you can, but I have teams to lead.” she turned red with anger herself. Calling him out and putting him in his place. He didn’t know what to respond and for a while they sat together in silence.

”You know, I heard we have magic-users on staff. But I never met one. Did you?” he tried his best to ignore the earlier comments.
”I have heard the same rumors, but that’s all it is… rumors. It wouldn’t make sense to go after magic-users so much if we had a few of them on our side.” She was quiet for a moment, and then looked Jason in the eye. She continued with a small voice: ”We have one in the Dungeon though….”

The dungeon was a holding facility on the lower levels. It wasn’t as bad as the name would suggest. Half of it could be described as a rehabilitation center, and another part was more of a training area. However, a small part was like a prison. They always promoted a peaceful way of dealing with time travelers, and for most this was perfectly acceptable. But there were always those that had the wrong intention, and Tempus had to keep them separated in order to protect the timeline.

”You are shitting me, aren’t you… How would you even know? I am sure it’s not something we advertise.”
A smile appeared on her face. ”Well, it’s not like I am supposed to know about it. I heard my parents speak about it, they thought I was asleep. Of course this is years ago, but I have no reason to assume he or she is not there anymore.” she had that cheeky smile. It made her look like a naughty child.

”What else do you know? Any idea what they did, or how they were caught?” his head was starting to spin faster.
”No clue, but…. should be worth checking, right? Neither of us have access to that level, but if Hassini let you and me work together again, maybe he’ll allow this too.”
”I don’t think so. The Dungeon is not something they would like anyone to have access to. To be honest I have never been there myself, I just led people to the door, but from there it’s the security. I think we have to think of something else. I think it would definitely be worth it to speak to this person. Not to be harsh, but we might not be prepared enough at the moment to complete this mission.” he finished his drink, getting ready to go to work.
”Agreed, I can get us on that level, but we need to get passed security. We can always say we are there to instruct at the training facility.”

For the next 3 hours they thought up a plan that might work. Both were excited, but exhausted at the same time. Jason had slept a bit, but his dream had not given him any rest. All through the night they talked about all sorts of things, but he wasn’t yet ready to share what he had seen in his dream. After they had the plan together they said goodbye for the night.
As Lucy stepped out the door on the way to her own room, Jason sat down on the bed. He was excited for the next day, hoping to get a step closer to finalizing his mission. When he laid his head on the pillow he fell into a more comfortable and dreamless sleep.