The Timeservers

Chapter 45

New York City, New York

The Spire

Floor 20 Analyst Floor

Historian Analyst Division

December 19, 227 P.F.E

1100 hours

Via marches onto the floor, throwing open the doors and setting her jaw. The analysts closest to her look up from their screens at her entrance. She breezes past them, walking to the middle of the floor where the highest-ranking analyst sits.
"Hey, you can't be in here!" the highest-ranked calls. She's a level ten, older than most of the analysts, probably forty. There's grey around her temples and her hair is short, ending just before her chin. She's got tired blue eyes that are looking in abject disapproval at Via.
"I'm Spectre Evanesce, look it up. I can be wherever I want. I want to be where Connor Barkley is. I heard he worked on this floor."
"Evanesce, here for an in-persondebriefing?" Connor smiles from his spot at his desk, folding his arms. Via's blood boils at the sight of him.
She marches up to the desk and slams her palms down on it, leaning close. "Where were you when we needed you? Why didn't you warn us about the extremists?"
"I told you right before I signed off that you wouldn't hear from me."
"Even when terrorists are attacking the place where our mission is happening? Kel- Phoenix is in a hospital bed now because we didn't have a warning about what was happening! Candidates and chancellors were hurt!"
"My job is not to babysit you spectres. My job is to analyze. I did my job. Don't blame me for where you can't do yours."
"Sophia would have warned us."
"I'm not Sophia. Sophia also isn't supposed to be doing that. If I were to talk to you, I would have told you to get out of there instead of playing hero. You weren't playing hero though; were you? You were hiding out in your old room and fantasizing about your little 'tough guy.'"
If Via hadn't already been bright red with fury she would have turned red with embarrassment. She'd forgotten that Connor could see them, or maybe she hoped he wouldn't be looking out for them like a good analyst was supposed to be doing. Via can't deal with that whole situation at the moment so she switches tactics.
"What were you doing with Tatiana?"
"Who?" Connor grins, swinging in his chair. Via's spent enough time around Kelly to know when a smile is hiding something though. "You know; I'd be a little careful with what I accuse people of around here. analysts like gathering information, especially information that can implicate a person with something."
"Did you care that one of us might have died in there?"
"Caring isn't part of the job description. I've heard it makes people less effective. Besides, it'd be kind of a bad move to make an emotional connection to one of you spectres, what with you always throwing yourselves into fights. I suggest you take that advice yourself. If you're intent on not taking it though, fine. Why don't you run along and sit bedside again? I'm sure you'd want to be there when he wakes up. Maybe pick up where you left off?"
Connor might as well have slapped her. First, she'd almost let him die because of her concern for him already. She wasn't even sure if that concern was rooted in feelings for him or some sort of twisted selfishness that she can't bear to think she might be capable of. Second, they hadn't let her into the infirmary with him. She'd woken up in a hospital on the mainland after being taken there by those ignorant medics. She'd had to flag down a shuttle and commandeer it to get back to the island. When she'd gone to the infirmary the attendant at the front desk asked how she was related to Kelly. Co-workers weren't enough apparently. She wasn't sure what else she might call herself. She couldn't even get an update on his condition.
Via takes a deep breath, trying to put on a mask as effective as Kelly's. It doesn't quite fit right, but it will do the trick. She lets her face go blank but holds a certain shadow of emotion that could be interpreted as anything. She wills her breathing to even and her voice to level. She lets one side of her mouth quirk up a little.
Via reaches down and grabs onto the hem of her chancellor's overshirt. It's still covered in blood; Kelly's blood. She pulls it over her head, leaving herself in her tank top and more exposed than she's ever been. She grabs one of Connor's hands with an iron grip and puts the shirt into his open palm.
"If Phoenix dies the blood is on your hands, not mine."
Turning on her heel, Via heads for the door. She rubs at her arms and casts a glare at the analyst closest to the door so that they open it for her. She doesn't even bother with the elevator; they've been busy since the attack. She heads right for the stairs, breaking down the minute she's hidden in the stairwell. Her sobs echo as she moves up a few steps to go to the spectre floor then changes her mind and starts heading for the infirmary.
She finally decides on up. Even if she were to be allowed into the infirmary she's not sure if Kelly would welcome the sight of her. She doesn't think she could bear to be confronted by the mask ofKelly. She doesn't think she could bear to hear him depersonalize everything again and push everyone away. She shouldn't even be thinking of him. It's just the stress of the day.
Via makes it up to the spectre floor, absolutely worn out. She peeks through the glass door to make sure the main room is empty before sneaking through it and to her room. She debates about just flopping onto the bed, finishing her cry, and falling right asleep, but one look down at herself eliminates that option.
There's still blood all over her arms, soaking through her undershirt. She runs her hands through her hair and there's some sort of sticky substance in it. She pulls at it with her nails and its blood too.
There's a high whimpering sound and Via realizes that it's her. She rips off all of her clothes, weeping. She grabs her robe, wraps it around herself, then marches onto the balcony and tosses the clothes right off the edge. She doesn't even wait to see them fall but runs right back into the room without bothering to close the balcony doors. She throws open the bathroom door, tosses off her robe, and jumps right into the shower.
Via lets the warming water hit her full force, jacking the water pressure as high as it will go and heating the water so it's nearly burning her skin and it makes it hard to breathe. She sits down, clawing and scratching at her hair. She scrubs her arms, face, and hair with soap, focusing on her hands. The water turns from pink to clear as she scrubs, but she just keeps scrubbing. She tries to scrub away everything that happened.
When Via is seeing black stars start to fall in front of her she turns off the shower and crawls onto the bath mat just outside. She covers herself in the robe and lies there, tears falling down her face, barely a thought in her head, and incapable of closing her eyes. When she closes her eyes she has to think, she has to see what happened. So she won't lose her eyes. She won't close her eyes ever again.