Bring The Heat

61. Midnight's Stalemate Pt 2 (CB ARC 10)

-(NICK, TENSON, AND DOMINIC)-

The three sat at a table in a fast food restaurant, all wearing oversized hoodies with the hoods up and drawstrings fully tied.

Dominic was using the free wifi to show Nick his favourite Renaissance period art, and Nick was giggling at all the naked people in the paintings. Tenson sat across from them, sulking. Nick smirked, and poked at his uneaten food.

"What's wrong, babe? You've barely touched your burger." they jeered, snickering along with Dominic. Tenson just grunted and furrowed his brow.

"Ugh," Nick continued, "look, we'll go back when this all blows over, alright? BM's got this. And besides, you guys should be thankful, I got us a primo motel. I only found one used needle in the lobby!"

Tenson looked up, pissed and confused.

"Wait, we're not going back to help? Then why the hell did we get these disguises!?"

Nick leaned across the table, lowering their voice.

"Oh my god, did you think I was being serious? I'm so sorry, little man. We got these cos I was cold."

Tenson growled in anger, and pulled off the hoodie crudely. These assholes weren't taking this seriously! He was, however, somewhat calmed when Dominic reached across the table and took his hand, clutching it reassuringly.

"Come on, man. I get it, you had to fight your whole life, and even your first day at the compound, a bunch of people nearly died! Uh, sorry about that, by the way... but the point is, we can just take it easy now, ok? We have BM now. I trust him!"

After thinking it over briefly, Tenson let go of Dominic's hand and grabbed his food, beginning to eat. Nick and Dominic cheered him on, and he did, admittedly, feel a little more secure - but even still, he couldn't get the idea of everyone needing his help out of his mind.

-(TWIST AND AZIZA)-

Twist leaned against the shutter door to the hangar, smoking a cigarette broodingly. Aziza laid against the shutter too, wrapped up in coats, and cuddling with another Aziza.

Examining his cigarette, Twist asked; "Hey, which one of you two is the clone?"

Both Azizas looked up, annoyed by the question.

"Neither of us." they responded in unison. Twist rolled his eyes, sneering.

"Fine then. You, come here."

He pointed at one of the two Azizas, who stood up and approached nervously. Twist gestured for her to come closer, before pressing the lit end of his cigarette to her cheek roughly. She shrieked in pain, and the other Aziza shot to her feet, getting in his face.

"What the fuck!? She has feelings, dude!" she exclaimed, and the other Aziza said "What the fuck!? I have feelings, dick!", slightly out of unison.

Twist marveled at them mockingly.

"Wow! Well, would you look at that! I broke the weird talking at the same time thing! Thank god. You guys are annoying when you do that..."

Angrily, Aziza turned to her hurt clone, affectionately holding her face to calm her from the pain.

"Of course you did," she said in a calm, reassuring tone as she brushed the other Aziza's hair behind her ear, "when you burnt her, she had different experiences from me, and so she changed slightly. She's different now! And..." she pressed her forehead against the clone's, "I think she's beautiful."

The Azizas smiled lovingly at each other, but Twist just scoffed, pulling his knife from his boot.

Aziza gazed deeply into her own eyes, and they gazed right back. It might seem weird or self-obsessed, but moments like these are what helped Aziza to come to terms with herself, to care about her appearance, and to have a strong sense of identity. It was a beautiful moment.

Beautiful and perfect, right up until Twist planted his blade into the other Aziza's neck.

She fell to her knees, gasping, gurgling, as blood poured down her chest and shoulder, and Twist just laughed as Aziza held her, dying, in her arms.

"NO! WHY THE HELL-" she screamed, tearing up, before leaning in closely to her clone.

"It's ok." she whispered, "I can make it stop hurting..."

Aziza kissed the clone on her cheek, pulling her into a deep embrace. The clone's suffering stopped quietly as she returned back into Aziza's body, who now jumped to her feet to confront Twist.

"You are seriously messed up! I know I said it was safe to kill them, but she was a different person! She was an entirely different soul to me! What the hell is wrong with you!?"

Twist looked at her, disgruntled.

"Oh, because of her 'different experiences'? Ok. Ok, fine. Y'know what? Make another clone, and I'll burn her too, if you want that one back so much! How's that sound? Or are you gonna shut the fuck up and get out of my face?"

Aziza glared up at him through pouring tears of sorrow and hatred, but felt ultimately powerless to do anything. Sobbing, she returned to her spot on the floor, wrapping herself, alone, with the coats. She tried to sleep, but felt so much colder without another Aziza to hold her. She thought about making another one, but... she was afraid of Twist, and what he would do to the both of them.

And so, she screwed her eyes shut, holding herself tightly, and pretended to be asleep, just so he might leave her be.