Agent 38: I Never Forgot You

Chapter 45: Relinquo

     (Rough translation: leave.)

     Sarai felt chills trickling down her back, cold and intense, as she took in Alex's words.
     "Are you real?"
     She glanced at Aaron, at the cousins. They looked just as horrified as she felt. Sarai turned her gaze back to her partner, meeting his eyes and seeing nothing but fear and beaten hope stored inside them.
     She reached up and took hold of his wrists, his hands cold and trembling against her jaw. "Of course I'm real," she whispered. His eyes seemed drained of all their fire, the bright orange hue seemingly gone. Now it looked more like his blind eye; off-white and weak. She shivered. "why wouldn't I be?"
     He let out another sob and his hands dropped away as she pulled him back into her arms. She could feel ink already staining her hands, soaking into her clothes from his, and felt a burst of panic in her chest. They had to get out of here. Now.
     "Moron," she heard a voice mutter in Octarian. Instantly, she whipped towards it.
     Just a few feet away Aaron and Callie held Gabriel back from them, her brother's face twisted in rage. Marie stood a few yards away, charger aimed at his forehead.
     Against her, Alex sobbed again. She could feel the frailty in his shaking shoulders, could feel the veins beneath his thinning skin, and shuddered. Each new discovery made her ink run cold, colder than his hands lying in hers. Even though she'd known this would happen, even though she'd known he could die, suddenly the possibility of it actually happening was crystal clear in her mind, like staring at something through a sheet of glass. Sarai could see that path with such painstaking clarity that part of her began to believe it.
     But she refused to let that happen without a fight. Her beloved would not be taken away from her, not when she'd been so close to saving him.
     "You shouldn't have come," Alex whispered into her shoulder, voice muffled and hoarse. He felt almost light against her body, like he hadn't eaten. The bags under his eyes indicated he hadn't slept either. He pulled away from her arms suddenly, exhaustion written into every feature on his face. "This has to be a trap."
     Sarai stared at him, hearts breaking one by one. How could he have just expected her to let him die?
     She cupped his face, careful not to touch the wounds, and his eyes fluttered as though he wanted to collapse into her touch again. "I would never, ever leave you, Alex. You know I wouldn't."
     "He can hurt you now," he said, eyes filled with desperation. "You should've left me."
     Sarai gently wiped away the tears from his cheeks and, without an inkling of indecisiveness, pressed her lips to his. He didn't even resist.
     She didn't care that he tasted of ink and death; she didn't want to waste her time thinking about that. All she wanted now was more time. All she needed now was more time. More time with him, for him, spent on him. Sarai knew this was torture, for both him and her, knowing that maybe, this would be the last kiss they shared.
     But somewhere deep inside her, she felt the slightest bit of relief. If all else failed, and her partner was lying dead on the ground by the end of today, at least she had this.
     And she knew, somehow, that he felt the same way.
     Sarai hesitated, restlessness battling against relief in her hearts, before she pulled away from Alex and stared into those eyes she'd fallen in love with all those years ago. They didn't look how she remembered, drained of their bright resolve; they looked tired, scared, willing.
     Her hands drifted down from his face to his shoulders. "Stay here, okay? I'll be right back."
     He hesitated, but nodded as she turned to Marie. "Stay with him for a sec?"
     The Inkling nodded.
     Sarai stood and walked over to Callie and Aaron, never breaking eye contact with the Octoling before her. Somewhere inside her hearts was a tiny kernel of pity for him that she knew she would have to stamp down in order to do what she was going to do.
     She met her friends's eyes. "Let him go."
     "But-" Aaron protested. "what if-"
     "He won't hurt me," Sarai said, more a threat than a statement. She turned her gaze back to Gabriel, letting the silence stretch out before her. "he knows what I'll do if he tries."
     Aaron and Callie moved away from him and Gabriel staggered to his feet, anger radiating through his posture. For as terrible as Alex looked, she didn't think he'd have been able to do much damage. But now, staring at Gabriel, he looked about half as bad as Alex did. He also looked twice as aggressive and twice as insane. Her fingers twitched towards the daggers on her hips, ready and willing to do what she knew she shouldn't.
     Sarai stared at him for a moment. Somewhere deep inside those eyes was a little boy whose hands weren't ready and willing to do what they knew they shouldn't have done. But the owner of those hands was gone, twisted and converted into something else, someone who she didn't know and didn't recognize. Before her was no brother, no man, no Octoling, but a dog who knew his life was in her hands.
     Gabriel's frame shrunk with each second he stood under her scrutiny. He blinked fast, defiance turning to fear, certainty turning to unease. Finally, he spoke.
     "Listen, I know you think-"
     Sarai raised her arm and slapped him as hard as she could, the sound of brutal force against tender skin reverberating around the room.
     Gabriel fell back with a cry, hands instantly flying up to his cheek.
     "You have exactly one minute to tell me why you did this, or so help me god, I'll make you look like him." She threw a hand back towards Alex. "But it looks like he's already got you halfway there, so let's bring it down to thirty seconds."
     Her brother stared at her in shock for a moment. "How can you still love him after all he's done to you?"
     Sarai crouched down and slapped him again. "Twenty-five seconds. Why did you do it?"
     He gaped at her in silence.
     Another slap! resounded around the room. "Tell me!" Sarai screamed. "Why did you do it!"
     Now he was gasping, crawling away from her, fear polluting his eyes. That kernel of pity popped in her stomach, but she stomped it down. He deserved this.
     When he didn't speak, she raised her arm again and he flinched back. "Because I hate him!"
     Sarai felt her hands twitching towards the daggers again and closed them to fists, meeting Gabriel's eyes.
     "I did it because I hate him!" Gabriel shrieked. "Because I hate the way he treats you! Because I hate that after all he's done to you, you still treat him like the best person in the world! I did it because he stole you away, and because he uses you to get what he wants, and because you left me, and because he hurt you and he hurt me and he left me alone! You left me! You all did! All because of him."
     She could see tears now, flooding her brother's eyes as he screamed and stumbled to his feet. "I did it because I hate him, and because I was trying so, so hard not to hate you, too. I did it because, after all these years, after all my hate and spite and anger was gone, I was finally going to win! I was finally going to get my way! He was going to be gone, and so were all your little idiot friends, and it would've just been us, together again like real siblings. We were going to be happy, and we were going to start a new life without any of them around."
     He glared at her, eyes sparkling with tears. "So, there's your answer. That's why I did it; so we could be happy."
     Sarai stared at him in disbelief, rage flooding her senses. All of a sudden she felt her lungs grow small, her hands itching to close around the daggers on her hips, to do what she knew she shouldn't. What she knew she couldn't.
     Still, she could do enough damage with her voice.
     "'Happy?'" she scoffed. "You did this so we could be happy?" Sarai grabbed him by the jaw, nails digging into his skin. "Do I look happy, Gabriel? Do you see me jumping for joy? Yay, thank you so much, dear brother, for almost murdering the love of my life! Thank you so much for trying to ruin my life again!"
     "I'm trying to help you!" He shouted. "Don't you see? Don't you see what he's doing? He's using you to get what he wants. It's what he always does, what he always will do. They've blinded you, Sarai! You don't see it, but I do! Let me help you!"
     She released his jaw and struck him again, the back of her hand stinging from her force. He let out a yell, tears of pain streaming down his face as she grabbed him by the hair, swinging them both around towards her friends. Sarai crouched down by his ear.
     "You think this is helping me? Do you really? Look him in the eyes and say it again. I dare you, Gabriel. Look at him and say it."
     Up ahead, her beloved glared, eyes wide and rheumy, the bags beneath his eyes seeming to grow darker by the minute. Had he even slept the whole time he'd been here? Had he eaten?
     "Say it!" she cried, shaking him. "Tell me how you were right and I was just waiting to be helped by your supreme intuition. Say it to my face- no, say it to his. Really look at him and tell me that you did this for my own good. Go on; convince me."
     As the silence stretched thin and her grip tightened around Gabriel's hair, Sarai could tell, without even seeing his face, that he knew she was right.