taty|noir

[denial]

Originally Posted by $in

give me the gun thingy...ok, good!... now go and update *taps denial's head*

..okay .. I go get more update! *puts on her black Gluk'Oza suits* .. you know...this feels cool .. like..going to rich people place and steal thier diamonds.. and you're wearing black with all those thingys ... *puts on her night sun glasses* ...

[denial]

By: Tatufreak


Notes: To start with, P2 is going to be really different, with some quite heavy moments. Don't worry, I'll keep it lighthearted - the main aim of this fic is to be cool. And it's gonna be. Don't worry about that.

Right, "enough of this twaddle." (dude from tombraider movie 1)

Part Two Chapter One - Mission

Banner: http://img13.photobucket.com/albums/...freak/P2c1.jpg

As we fly in from our lives, eyes open for any clue of what’s happening in the big mansion on the hill, we are distracted by the sound of live gunfire. The ethereal white curtains ghost the wide bay windows overlooking the trees around it, and from within flashes of light and strange sounds emerge.

Yulia stood with her back pressed firmly against the wood-panelled wall. She sniffed the air – it stank of dried flowers, floor wax and expensive perfume; the legacies of the mansion’s single occupant, also known as TaTu’s soon-to-be first victim. An anonymous email had arrived only that morning with a date, a method of payment, and a name. While Yulia had been unsure with what to do, Lena was obviously used to this way of contact and had calmly begun to clean and load her weapons.
Now they were inside the mansion itself, and things were getting a little difficult. After a brief investigation into the widowed woman’s security systems, they’d concluded that unless they were careful they’d have a small army of Uzi-carrying guards hunting them down. The infiltration had gone well – it was a dark night, licked by fog as it curled around the house.
Yulia had gone straight in, making her way with her unknowing ease and style that rendered Lena insanely jealous. It had taken no effort for her to throw a wide somersault over the fence, propelling herself up with the help of a support pole. She never gave a second thought to her finesse in landing elegantly on the lawn, lightly enough so as not to attract the attention of the ground-based sensors. The way she stalked through the grounds silently and invisibly didn’t concern her, neither did the way she rendered the garden guard unconscious with ease and stylish simplicity. Such things were second nature to her; they were of no interest. If anyone had mentioned them to her as being superb shows of prowess and skill, she would have been genuinely surprised. All the mansion’s ground floor windows were barred and completely inaccessible, even to her. She’d suspected this would be the case, so the little dark-haired girl had performed a flip with surreal ease, landing in a perfect handstand with her fingers clasped firmly around the top of the bars bolted over the window. She was perfectly flat against the wall, feeling for the second-story window ledge with her toes. In order to do this right, she had had to kick off one of her shoes. Seeing as how they were still in Russia, they had had no time to equip Yulia with Assassin gear, which included suitable shoes. It was then that a perimeter guard had appeared brandishing a Uzi. He had no idea the dark girl was flattened against the wall just above his head because he was too busy noticing her dropped shoe. Bending down on the patio to retrieve it, he’d straightened up with the item in his hand, staring at it quizzically. It was then that he’d detected the slightest of touches to his hair, but before he’d had time to turn Yulia had shot a silenced bullet into his head.
Projected bodycount three, she’d thought to herself, balancing carefully on one hand, I mustn’t go over that.
As the man had crumpled quietly onto the patio, the girl had finally located the second-floor window sill, and through the efforts of her mysterious skills was able to knock out the glass and swing herself up into the room above. She quickly disabled the electronic security systems, and Lena had climbed in through the same window a minute later. The ash-blonde Assassin had then taken a few seconds to reprimand her new partner for “making a mess.” Yulia hadn’t risen to a reply, watching her Parisian associate with her big, soulful brown eyes. Lena had felt a twinge of guilt that she’d been unfairly harsh to the young girl, but had brushed it aside with annoyance.
We’re Assassins, not schoolgirls.
She’d then taken a knife from a concealed pocket in her boot, stabbing it unhesitatingly into a felt-topped table by her hand, causing Yulia to blink at the sudden motion.
“We start from here, we end here,” she’d said, confirming arrangements. She had then turned to go, and behind her back the smaller, dark-haired girl had reached for the knife. “Don’t touch it,” Lena had snapped, without turning around. Yulia had stared at her, then back at the blade, opening her mouth as if to speak. Finally, with a soft look in her eyes, she’d walked away from the table and exited the room without a word.
Lena had finally glanced over her shoulder at the knife, a quiet smile playing on her lips. The first test had been passed – Yulia obviously knew who was the boss in this partnership. With this, Lena had removed her gun from her holster, staring down the length of the clean barrel with something like pride before carefully making her way into and down the corridor outside.
A few minutes had passed uneventfully…until a large guard sporting another Uzi had peered into the room from the doorway, briefly checking everything was ok. He didn’t notice Yulia’s carefully knocked-out window, his blue eyes barely piercing the darkness of the room so like the other thirty he had to monitor that night. Then, as he’d turned to go, a flash of light from the corridor had fallen on the blade of Lena’s knife…and then all hell broke loose.
Now, as the alerted guards ravaged through the house in search of intruders, Yulia had her back to the wall, eyes squeezed shut. It was at moments like these that she found it useful to utterly disregard sight and rely completely on what her other senses told her. Another reason for this might have been that it was pitch black in that particular corridor, so she couldn’t see anyway.
Remember, a body count of three only.
Footsteps began echoing to the northeast of where she was standing. Yulia quietly oriented herself into that direction and then began to concentrate with everything she had. She detached herself from anything physical and tried to take the mind of whoever was approaching.
The walker was hesitant. They weren’t aware of Yulia’s presence, but were still being careful. They were holding a gun, the very slight click of the barrel against one of the walker’s buttons gave that away. They were half – no – three-quarters of the way down the passage, walking towards the corner, walking in heavy shoes, not disguising the heavy footfalls. It was a man.
Yulia kept her eyes closed, bracing her gun against her chest with her arm. At what she judged to be the perfect moment she brought her right hand outwards in a wide semicircle, ending with the butt of her gun smashing into the face of the would-be attacker. With a sick thud the man crumpled, his Uzi flying out of his hands. Yulia reached down and caught it as it fell. There was no clatter, nothing to alert anyone creeping along the corridors to her position. She quickly dropped into a crouch and felt the man’s pulse to make sure she hadn’t inadvertently killed him, shifting her gun to her left hand to do so. A rhythmic thud under her fingers reassured her, and the dark-haired girl allowed herself to crack a tiny smile.
“Lena would be proud.”
Her dark head whipped round as a soft footstep alerted her to a presence in the same corridor. In a moment she’d spun her gun up into her hand and was crouching again in her niche, eyes dark and shining. There was something in this moment – something inexplicable. All she knew was that the thrill of killing, hiding, hunting…it all stirred something deep inside her, like a sleeping monster buried in the grey mists of time. Why did it feel so right?
Now the person was almost halfway towards her. Whoever it was was taking very soft steps, and this time Yulia was sure they knew she was there. Funny, but not even in her depths did there stir a desire to run and hide. She was strangely awakened by the sensations of an Assassination mission – almost desperate for blood.
Here we go.
Yulia threw herself forward against the wall, placing a foot squarely onto the wood panelling. Hoisting herself up and sideways she flew into view turning a perfect side flip, gun held with both hands out in front of her. Tucking up her knees below her chin allowed her to soar into her somersault, preparing herself for the impact of firing in midair.
Instead her finger fell off the trigger as her brown eyes took in the corridor scene. She landed with a sideways roll to cushion the noise, rising to her feet almost instantly with her gun still pointed straight out in front of her.
Mirroring her pose inch for inch, Lena had her gun aimed straight at Yulia’s gentle little face. The two girls stared into each others’ eyes with the full emotion of the Hunt coursing through their veins. Lena breathed in and out heavily, unwilling to lower her gun. A flicker of memory surged through her, and her finger tightened around the trigger. She didn’t trust the dark girl within an inch of her life, and there was something more…something much deeper that was clinging on to the gun with everything it had – something that desperately wanted her to pull that trigger. Yulia stared right back at her, but was paralysed only by fear. It was not a physical but a mental terror; the slow sickening horror of dejá vu.
Their eyes were still locked – brown held blue in a torrent of sensation, passion and complete silence.
A sudden noise heralded the appearance of a guard at the end of the corridor. As one TaTu turned their arms together, and each fired once.
The man collapsed with a double hole in his forehead.
Yulia turned to Lena, eyes dancing. “What a te-”
She was cut short as the blonde Assassin slapped her sharply on the cheek.
There was a breathless pause, then Yulia lifted her hand to her face. She had a scarlet patch where Lena had hit her, which she now touched gently with her fingers, her brown eyes hurt and questioning.
“We are not a team,” Lena hissed furiously, eyes blazing. “We just work together. That’s all.”
She turned abruptly and stormed down the hallway. She’d only gone a few steps before suddenly gripping the handle of a door next to her. Twisting it furiously, she opened it, levelled her gun and shot a single bullet into the darkness. This done, she slammed the door shut again and threw a glance at Yulia.
“Mission completed. See you at the airport.”
With this she was gone, leaving the dark-haired girl standing on her own in the corridor, two men slumped at her feet. Her hand was still raised to her cheek, and tears began to stream slowly down her fingers; silver-clear dripping down to mix with and swirl into spilt crimson blood.

[denial]

By: Tatufreak



Part Two Chapter Two - Above

Banner: http://img13.photobucket.com/albums/...freak/p2c2.jpg

Lena played frettingly with the cord of her earphones. She twisted it around her finger a few times, unravelling it and retwisting it. Out of the corner of her eye she could tell that Yulia hadn’t moved for over an hour. Maybe she was asleep, lulled by the calm background hum of the airplane.
A quick glance disproved this – the dark-haired girl was staring avidly out of the window. She was utterly enraptured by the view from the airplane, eyes wide with joy and surprise.
I suppose she should be surprised, Lena thought, a faint smile twisting her lips, she has no memory of ever being in an airplane.
“I think…” Yulia’s soft voice interrupted the blonde’s muse. “I think I have been. …A few times maybe, it’s just; it’s sort of that I can remember this same angle, like a dejá vu from another life. Or…something.” She halted, blushing and a little shy. Suddenly aware that no answer was forthcoming, she glanced up at her partner, who was frowning.
“How did you know I was thinking that?”
Yulia blinked. A timid look crept into her eyes, and she shielded her expression by turning away to the window again.
“You must have said it out loud, accidentally…”
Another pause made her heart beat faster as Lena contemplated this.
“Yes,” the latter said finally, “I must have done.”
Nothing more was said, but the blonde remained staring at Yulia with suspicion and a dark mistrust.
The moment was broken as a hand tapped Lena’s shoulder, causing her to start and then turn.
“Hello dear!” The same old lady was sitting behind the duo. “Fancy meeting again!”
Lena scowled furiously. The last thing she wanted was another episode. Behind her Yulia could sense her tensing up, she could see the stress building in her neck and shoulders.
I should do something…she looks really angry. Why is that strange woman talking about her son’s knee problem? Uh oh, there’s a vein rising on Lena’s forehead…
Yulia quietly picked up her glass of water and flipped her table away with one hand.
“Lena, hold this.”
Wordlessly the blonde took the cup, eyes questioning. Yulia placed her left hand on her thigh and used it to twist herself round in her seat. Quickly and calmly she reached out to the chattering old woman and pressed a soft spot just below her ear with her other hand. The inane babble ceased as the aged lady’s greying head fell forward onto her chest.
That done, the dark-haired girl turned back towards Lena.
The blonde glanced at her, then stared pointedly at the little hand that was still on her thigh.
Yulia followed her eyes down before pulling it away with a start and a shy smile.
“Sorry, I uh…”
Lena changed the subject. “I hope you didn’t just do anything illegal.”
“No, she’ll be awake by the end of the flight.”
Yulia stared down at her offending hand, squeezed tightly into the other one in her lap. The silence pressed on her, so she glanced sideways at Lena, who was calmly proceeding to read a magazine.
“Are you…” she began softly, when she had her full attention, “are you fond of flying?”
Lena was pleased by the girl’s quaint speech, and a tiny part of her crushed her normal response of a brusque, rude reply, urging her instead to be civil for once.
“I suppose so,” she answered, pushing the magazine back into the seat pocket. “I tend to fly a lot with my job…our job, I guess. I…we…have to make quite a few long journeys, so flying first class is generally the best option. That means it’s easier and more relaxing to fly, so yeah, I guess it’s ok.”
This was the longest and most friendly non-work conversation they’d yet shared, and Yulia’s troubled eyes began to lose their sad look for a brief moment. Lena noticed this, quietly pleased. She decided to ask her a question.
“Do you enjoy flying?”
The younger girl lit up. “Of course! The view…it’s…” she lapsed into an expressive silence, her eyes shining with rapture.
“I can tell you do, then.” Lena began to toy with her earphone cord again, searching for anything else to talk about. “So what else are you good at?”
Yulia frowned slightly, considering the question.
“I think I’m ok at acrobatics and gymnastics, I mean flips and stuff. I…I can handle a gun pretty well, because it just seems so right. The way you hold it, point it, aim; the pressure of the trigger, the steady weight, the smoothness of the sheen as you slip it from hand to hand…” Yulia’s eyes went briefly dreamy for a moment, and Lena quietly acknowledged that she was sitting next to trained and tested master. “And then there’s other stuff, like running, stalking too. I think I can fight with sticks or poles, and I seem to be pretty strong for my size…or maybe I’ve just never seen how strong people my size can be; I seem to be drawn to darkness and shadows, and…” Now she paused, causing Lena to study her downcast face. “I…I can…I mean I think I can…”
“You sound like the little Engine that Could.”
Yulia glanced up, confused.
“What?”
“The Engine that Could, you know…Ok fine, you don’t know. Sue me.” Lena crossed her arms and stared at the seat in front of her. Yulia felt her attention and good nature slipping away, so she desperately searched for something to say.
“Paint!”
“…What?”
“Paint. I can paint. At least, I think I…I…” She raised her eyes to Lena’s, and they met with force. One pair of eyes was shy, timid, quietly sad but hopeful – the other was bright, cold, and very slowly beginning to soften. Yulia took a deep breath.
“I guess I’m the Little Engine that painted.”
Lena stared at her silently, acknowledging Yulia’s pathetically gentle attempt at a joke. A moment passed as did a nameless flight attendant and a balding man on his way to the toilet, as well as several large clouds and a few miles of air. Yulia turned slowly back to the window, watching the darkening sky and the myriads of pinpoint lights visible far below.
Behind her, very slowly, a heartless Assassin stared down unseeingly at her table in front of her. The cold, cruel Parisian socialite of steel blue eyes and long eyelashes with a hushed up, broken childhood of memories hiding deep inside…her identity flashed through her sharp mind with a warning, but Lena was momentarily tired of her barriers.
Slowly she turned her face to the window, and as if by magic Yulia anticipated her motion, moving back to let her see. Lena blinked in surprise as a sea of tiny lights winked and shimmered in the frozen night hair. Far below a million people were relaxing with their loved ones, tied down in the world with happy cares, no idea that high above their sleepy heads a brutally unhappy, hopelessly broken young woman was thinking about them. She had no loved ones, she had no threads. She wasn’t tied to the world in any way – If I died, no one would miss me…no one would know.
“I’d know,” Yulia whispered, still watching the lights below. The magic shimmered and hung heavily in the air, and the dark-haired girl put out a little hand to touch the cool glass. “And I’d miss you.”
Lena stared at her again, but this time her dark blue eyes held no suspicion, only a deep, sad fragility. She glanced down at the twinkling lights as Yulia’s honest and simple words sank into her heart, and then, very slowly, Lena began to smile.

[denial]

By: Tatufreak



Part Two Chapter Three - Present Time

Banner: http://img13.photobucket.com/albums/...freak/P2c3.jpg

A Parisian street at sunset. Bustling bohemia settles down to a low buzz for the night as the darkened street lamps begin to come to life, casting pools of light on the pavements and people below. The crowds shift and sway to the short faded bursts of music from the bars they pass, chattering and linking arms with their partners. Darkness falls peacefully, a happy moment pervades the dusk and humanity holds its breath through the exchange of the early sleepers for the late.
It is in this moment that little Yulia Volkova shoulders her bag and looks at the scene through shining eyes. They reflect everything she has to say, and more. She is stunned; awed by the bustling activity and beautiful people.
A hand on her arm pulls her attention from the scene towards the blonde haired girl standing in front of her. The combination of the heavy magical moment and the light falling on her beautiful face catches Yulia’s throat in a wave of sudden affection. She rushes towards Lena and throws her arms around her neck, thanking her in delight for bringing her to live in the enchanted city of lights.
There is a brief moment in which Lena’s blue eyes widen in shock, and then she shoves the younger girl roughly away.
“Don’t ever do that again, Volk,” she says, angrily, and turns her back coldly upon the crushed dark-haired girl behind her. The latter takes a last look at the beautiful scene with a sigh, before she swallows the lump in her throat and turns to follow her partner-in-crime through the tree-lined streets. They reach the apartment soon, and Lena checks the letter box quickly before leading Yulia up the well-lit staircase to the top floor. She pushes the door open with a foot and allows the smaller girl to pass through before nudging it closed behind them.
Yulia is once again enraptured, this time with the apartment. She takes in every detail with her dark eyes, assessing it quietly. Her gaze falls upon the double bed, then she searches unsuccessfully for another.
Lena guesses what she’s thinking, shaking her head and unravelling her loose blonde curls with her long fingers. “There’s nowhere else to sleep, apart from the couch. We both have to get the maximum amount of quality sleep we can, so we’ll share the bed for now. I’ll talk to the landlord in the morning about getting another bed up here, in the meantime you’d better not kick, snore or sleep talk.” The girl stares at the sheets for a moment, and then back at the girl next to her, adding, “And if you sleep walk, you’re definitely on the sofa tomorrow night.”
Yulia cracks a half-smile and puts her bag down on the bed before glancing at Lena, who coughs pointedly.
“That’s my side.”
The dark haired girl moves her bag obligingly and begins to unpack the few things she has – a pair of pyjamas, a toothbrush, her ID card, gun and the watch. Lena’s cold eyes remain fixed on the last item, nestling among the smooth sheets. Yulia notices her interest and quietly picks the little silver timepiece up, glancing at it quickly before taking it in one hand. With an open sweep she extends her arm, proffering the watch for Lena’s inspection. The latter stares at it furiously, before shaking her head and turning away. Wordlessly Yulia watches her movements, and then quietly tucks it beneath her pillow. There was time for that later.
Lena walks into the kitchen area, lighting the cooker and getting a chopping board from a silver wall-rack. She switches on the overhead lights and instantly the space is flooded with warmth and brightness, gleaming off the chrome surfaces.
“So, are you gonna just stand there, or are you gonna help me cook?”
This is addressed to Yulia, who is standing silently by the bed. She instantly brightens, joining Lena in the kitchen and taking a peeler from her.
“Start on those,” the blonde said, pointing towards a few potatoes she’d set out. “You can sauté them in a minute.”
Yulia obligingly takes the vegetables and begins to peel them, quickly and efficiently. Lena watches her movements out of the corner of her eye, giving no indication of noticing. They work side by side for a few minutes, neither venturing to start a conversation. The silence is not uncomfortable however, in fact it is almost reassuring. Lena doesn’t want to speak, and Yulia sees no pressing need to.
Finally Lena finishes her task and looks over at the wall-rack beyond her dark-haired partner.
“Pass me that knife, will you?”
Yulia looks up before setting down the peeler. She picks a sharp blade from the rack by the handle, barely glancing at it. Turning to Lena, she shifts the knife in her hand with a simple slip, holding it by the tip and offering the handle to her blonde host.
Lena stares at Yulia for a moment, once again cold and suspicious.
Why didn’t she mention she was good with knives? She asks this question in her mind, with unshown confusion. It clears quickly however, as she realises the truth behind the movement. Because she doesn’t know, does she? She’s completely unaware of her skills.
Lena takes the knife, still staring at Yulia. The latter quietly resumes peeling, unconscious that anything has just happened.
The two girls finish preparing the meal quickly, and they eat it at the dining room table without conversation. Lena continues to watch her guest, observing the way in which she holds her knife, cuts her food, breathes, stirs, shifts her body slightly to catch the cool night breeze filtering in from the half-open window next to her. Her movements are simple and pleasing, her pretty eyes framed with long eyelashes are expressive and pressingly sad. She is a gentle child, unaware of her own fragility and hopelessness, forgetting herself in her forgotten memories. She has obviously been well taught and trained, brought up somewhere where her motions have not gone unchecked. She is unconsciously graceful and has a quiet air of sweetness and purity, something that the socialite sitting opposite her finds refreshing and gently attractive.
After the meal has finished and the dishes have been washed, the two girls change quickly into their pyjamas. Lena is dressed tastefully – and extremely elegantly – in a simple combination of white silk. Yulia on the other hand wears pastel shorts and a tank top, her childish figure evident in her somehow adorable lack of Lena’s womanly curves.
They move to the bathroom. Lena ignores her reflection in the brightly lit mirror as she begins to squeeze toothpaste out onto her toothbrush, but pauses as she notices Yulia hasn’t moved at all. She glances up and watches her, a half-sad smile crossing her face as she realises what is happening.
Completely oblivious to her, Yulia is standing face-on towards the mirror. She is staring straight at herself, a confused and somehow quietly horrified look in her dark eyes. She reaches forward tentatively, and Lena is suddenly aware she is holding her breath. Yulia touches the cool mirror with a fingertip, tracing the outline of her face. She runs a line from her left ear to her chin, up the other side, over her hair, around her eyes.
She’s memorising herself, Lena thinks to herself, quietly aware that she is witnessing something special and that she should feel privileged.
Now the dark-haired girl traces the outlines of her neck and shoulders, eyes still never leaving the mirror reflection’s. It’s as if they’re locked in an eternal gaze; the fatal embrace of two souls equal and opposite. The younger girl concentrates on her features, Lena watches lost somewhere between suspense and anticipation.
“She doesn’t know her own face,” Yulia whispered slowly, referring to herself in third person. “She is a stranger to her own reflection.” She speaks dreamily; trancelike – as if she’s remembering a long-forgotten line of poetry, a chant hidden within the veils of a childhood even she can’t remember.
Then her eyes move slowly to Lena’s reflection, catching them and holding them with a force and fragile brutality that shocks the latter, forcing her to concentrate on wiping up the toothpaste spilled from her toothbrush.
After a while the adjoining sink’s tap is turned on, the blonde Assassin doesn’t look – she winces at the sudden sound and hastily chides herself for being so emotional and jumpy.
She’s a kid with amnesia. She doesn’t know her own face – big deal. She’ll remember it soon enough…
“And then I’ll be out of your way.”
…
“What?”
Yulia glances at her quickly, and for a second a desire to draw aside the curtain and let Lena peek into her true nature invades her irresistibly.
“That’s something else I can do. I can read people like books – their body language and their eyes say more in a moment than they ever could…ever.”
Lena frowns at her, but it’s a good sort of frown.
“So that’s how you can answer questions I haven’t asked?”
“And finish sentences you haven’t started,” adds Yulia, with a hint of a smile.
There’s a pause, and then Lena plants her hand on the girl’s shoulder and shoves her away, playful for a fleeting moment.
“You’re weird, Volk. You’re really weird.”
Yulia flashes her a smile, but it fades quickly as sadness crosses her face again. Lena perceives this, and then she quietly promises herself that she’ll remember not to be too rough verbally with the girl.
Even jokes can hurt her…she’s so fragile, and yet she’s not really. It’s a paradox – she’s undisturbed by killing and blood, and yet the lightest of criticism scars her. What is she? She’s like a steel machine with a heart of…pink…chocolate. Somehow.
She shrugs her thoughts off and turns away, dancing around the apartment to turn off the lights. As darkness falls around her, Yulia finishes brushing her teeth and wipes her hands, rinsing off her brush and hanging the towel up. Her conscientiousness forces her to wipe the sink with a paper towel, which she throws away before turning off the bathroom lights and making her way through the darkness.
Lena is already in the bed. She closes her eyes and listens.
Yulia’s footsteps are unhesitating. She barely knows the apartment, and yet she walks through the pitch black with the surety of a child bathed in light. Reaching the correct side of the bed she reaches for her rucksack and picks it up, moving it off the bed. Finally she peels back the duvet and slips in, and for the first time Lena notices she is shivering.
“We’re getting up at seven tomorrow,” she breaks the silence, playing with the silken hem of the coverlet. “Clients like to call early. In the mean time get some sleep – you’ll need it.”
Yulia doesn’t answer, because her teeth are chattering too hard.
She’s only a kid…she has nothing on her at all, it must be strange for her in a new apartment with no past and a cloudy future – she needs comfort, or she’ll die. This thought echoes in Lena’s mind surprisingly clearly, and she instantly knows it’s the truth. Yulia is already dangerously close to falling into darkness – her eyes are constantly sad and hurting, despite her quietness and gentleness. She must be really broken up inside, and she’s so fragile…
Just as Lena’s about to act, a warning flashes up viciously, setting off alarm bells in her head.
If you do this, there’s one more barrier you’ll never be able to rebuild. Don’t do this Lena, don’t do this to yourself.
Conflict wrecks her mind and twists her forehead into lines of confusion. Silence and night kiss the sleeping city as a young blonde girl wrestles with a problem hidden away in the darkness. It’s irreversibly, incomprehensibly dangerous.
And now she acts – now she makes her decision.

Very quietly, with minimal fuss, Lena pressed her back gently against Yulia’s. The movement was simple and uncomplicated, but as her healing warmth began to flow silently into the younger girl, her mind was flooded and tortured with pressing feelings of regret, horror and dismay.
Just as they threatened to overwhelm her, something suddenly happened.
A shy, timid little hand touched her hair. Yulia was reaching back over her head, her fingertips gently stroking Lena’s soft curls. There was nothing in the gesture but pure greatfulness, and Lena was shocked to find that for the first time her pent up, overwhelming emotions of self-hatred and fear began to diffuse. They sifted away into soft clouds of unimportant questions, like sand falling away beneath her outstretched fingers. Lena blinked suddenly as slow realisation set in.
She’d just experienced an epiphany – a miracle – an answer. For once in her life she’d done something for someone else. Always used to concentrating on keeping her regrets away, she’d never sacrificed anything for anyone…and then Yulia had come along with her intense fragility and scarred past, hurting and hopelessly sad, desperately in need of reassurance. Lena had melted just enough to take one single step towards healing the girl, braving the inner voices that tormented her for just long enough. They’d followed, of course, but that was when the miracle had happened.
Yulia had stretched out a little hand and gripped the motion, pulling herself towards restoration…and she’d returned the gift to Lena. Hurt, dazed, broken, confused – the little dark-haired girl had something within her that mirrored the blonde’s aching torments. She’d responded with her own timid step, and somehow had offered her an equal chance of healing and restoration.
“We’ll heal each other – you and I.”
Yulia heard the whisper.
She stared into the darkness…nodded…smiled.
“TaTu together, until death do us part.”
Lena bit her lip and nodded slowly.
Only if you’d been there; a silent watcher with glowing eyes and the gift of wisdom; would you have seen the flash of pain cross the blonde’s face.
But…you aren’t.
Are you.

[denial]

By: Tatufreak

Notes: A few changes from now on. This will be the last mushy chapter for a while, as you can probably tell it's a bit boring to read when it's like this! Sorry guys...I didn't mean to make it boring...
Anyway, on with the story!



Part Two Chapter Four - Summer

Banner: http://img13.photobucket.com/albums/...freak/P2c4.jpg

There were a million specks of dancing dust, catching the falling sunlight and lighting the apartment with tiny sparks of morning.
They illuminated the peaceful face of the sleeping girl in the wide double bed, her dark hair splayed out across the pillow, her long eyelashes barely touching her sunkissed cheeks as she slept.
Above her, leaning over the bedpost, a slightly older blonde girl watched her every move. Her loose curls fell around her vividly blue eyes, which sparkled in the sunlight. Normally bustling and active at this time in the morning, she was for once content simply to look down upon the sleeping Yulia, as one angel watching over another. Below her, the girl began to waken from her deep-sleep state, her breaths becoming softer and softer until Lena had to hold her own to hear them.
Now she opened her dark eyes – they were extraordinarily clear, just for a moment. For the briefest second they shimmered with unworldly clarity, like the eyes of an ancient warrior waking from his long sleep in the hills above a scarred battlefield.
She stretched and yawned widely, provoking a similar response in Lena.
“Nyap nyap nyap,” Yulia mumbled, closing her eyes again and pulling her pillow down against her shoulder with a smile of luxurious pleasure.
Quietly Lena left the bedpost, stealing towards the large Venetian blinds. Winding them completely horizontal, she watched as direct squares of morning sunlit fell straight onto Yulia’s resting body. The girl reacted slowly, lifting an arm to shade her eyes as she opened them again to briefly regard the warm, brightly lit apartment.
“What time is it?” she asked sleepily, rubbing an eye with one hand while covering a second yawn with the other. Lena folded her arms and turned to look at her, standing at the centre of the bay window. From the bed she was a striking silhouette of darkness against a square of surreal light.
“It’s past eight,” she motioned to the wall clock, “and we have work to do. Get dressed and make some coffee while I check the post.”
With this she tossed her long curls and strode through the open doorway, shadows dancing across her legs and face as she crossed the window spaces. Yulia followed her with her eyes until she had disappeared from view, then stretched herself out once more before rising from the bed.
Her soft feet made no sound as she padded through to the bathroom, as she flicked on the light she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror that made her pause and stare. She lifted a finger very slowly to her reflection, feeling herself slipping; falling…
No.
She withdrew her hand suddenly, eyes half closed as she forced herself to concentrate on brushing her teeth. That done, she dressed quickly and ran her fingers through her hair, checking quickly in the hallway mirror to make sure she was looking ok. Dancing to the kitchen on light feet, she put the coffee pot into the machine and switched it on while humming a quiet tune over and over to herself. Shadows and light made a play on the floors and walls, causing her to smile. Tipping her head to one side to let her dark hair fall down over her shining eyes, Yulia looked enchantingly pretty and quaint - her little figure wrapped up tightly a shirt borrowed from Lena.
She met her own eyes in one of the many apartment mirrors again. This time she couldn’t pull away and found herself walking purposefully towards her reflection. She halted with her nose an inch from the mirror and reached up to her eyes, pulling the lids apart. Now she stared unhaltingly into her own gaze, and because pleasantly surprised to see her initial guess had been true. A little of the sadness in her eyes had disappeared over the night, except somehow it was still there – just in a different place now, closer to the healing light and the surface.
“Flesh wounds heal faster,” she whispered, and then smiled as her warm breath made two overlapping circles of steam on the smooth mirror surface. She pulled back, smiled at herself and then coloured with a delightful blush. The coffee machine beeped once to indicate a new pot of warm coffee, and at that moment Lena walked back into the apartment, leafing through the letters she held in one hand.
Halfway through towards the kitchen she paused and looked up at Yulia, eyes slightly narrowed.
“What are you doing?”
Yulia turned and glanced at her before letting her gaze drift back to the mirror, somewhat confused. She had been abruptly woken from her trancelike state, finding nothing now in the mirror that could possibly justify her previous actions.
“Nothing,” she sighed, wiping the mirror with a sleeve of her shirt. She joined Lena in the kitchen a moment later, accepting a cup of coffee and wrapping her fingers around it, inhaling the smell deeply as something tangible.
Lena leaned back against the counter, watching her. She was already finding herself getting too emotional, and obviously Yulia was being weighed down by thoughts and feelings.
I knew this was a bad idea.
Nevertheless they were in this together, and she quickly decided that getting out of the apartment and undergoing some rigourous training would be good for both of them.
“When you’ve finished your coffee, I’ll take you into the city to get you some clothes and things, and then we’ll go to the gym for a while.” She almost found herself adding, “Is that ok with you?” but caught herself just in time, furiously.
It doesn’t matter what she thinks, she works for me.
Yulia nodded at the suggestion, although it was more a command.
“That sounds nice.” She lifted her cup to her lips and drained the hot coffee, enjoying the taste and the warmth as it entered her body. She washed the mug quickly, putting it on the rack to dry before towelling her hands and turning back to Lena. “Shall we go?”
“We shall.”
The blonde took a pair of keys from the pool table and spun them lightly on her finger, expecting Yulia to follow. She heard the hesitation before she reached the door, and without turning she spoke.
“You don’t need a gun today. Leave it.”
The two girls left the Parisian apartment and emerged on the street below, blinking in the bright sunshine. The sky spanned the world high overhead, clear and blue. Lazy planes droned away and birds circled lethargically. It was a perfect late summer’s day, where the world soaks in the sunlight and radiates warmth, friendship and happiness.
As the girls walked past the large park a few streets down, Yulia turned to take in the scene. Wide green lawns looked thick and inviting in the light, exuding a dusky smell of relaxation and late summer days. A little blue lake shimmered and sparkled - it looked cool and inviting in the already hot day. Little children splashed around the shallows, watched over by their sunbathing mothers with their romantic novels and cans of warming Coke. These women often seemed to leap up for no apparent reason, dashing down to the water’s edge with a bottle of sunblock which they rubbed over their toddler’s neck and back; the children bore these frequent assaults calmly with slightly affronted dignity. Around them couples lay together in the warm grass, sometimes simply sunbathing, sometimes reading to each other or talking quietly. An ice cream van was parked along the path running through the park, passed by joggers and rollerbladers. In front of them a small group of pretty young girls were having a picnic, and a happily exuberent game of frisbee was taking place next to them involving athletic boys shouting and laughing in the hot summer sun.
Yulia took this all in with her soulfully big eyes while Lena watched her.
“You want to be a part of them, don’t you? You want to have fun with them, to belong in their groups.”
Yulia shook her head. “I don’t think I do…I think maybe…I think I, I think it’s just that…I don’t want any harm to come to them…I think I want to – is it wrong to want to protect them, Lena? To make sure they stay happy and alive and…and free, just like this?” Lena considered this for a moment, before flashing a smile and turning down the street.
“Come on Yulia. Let’s try to get some shopping done before lunch.”
“Ok.” The dark haired girl followed her, pausing for just a second to give the happy scene one last look. Her eyes took in the people and the warmth, before she suddenly paused. Something was amiss… She scanned the scene again and did a double take, staring across the lake. Two men stood together beneath a large tree, wearing dark suits. They had sunglasses on but Yulia could see they were looking straight at her, not talking or moving while they watched. They didn’t fit into the happy park at all, and the dark girl had a creeping sensation that something was distinctly wrong. As she opened her mouth, a hand suddenly gripped her wrist tightly. She turned, eyes wide.
“Come on Yulia!” cried Lena, pulling her down the street by one arm.
The girl tottered behind her; pulled back – resisted for a moment. Then she gave in, turning her head to search the park one last time.
Her eyes widened in horror.
The men had completely disappeared.

[denial]

By: Tatufreak

This isn't really a chapter, more an interlude. More to be posted very very soon, check back.

Menace


Banner: http://img13.photobucket.com/albums/...ak/PMenace.jpg

Somewhere, hidden on an obscure stretch of border below France, a vineyard glinted in the sun. Light shone off the rounded, ripening grapes with their smoky sheen and heavy lustre. They’d be ready soon…
Nearby, in a dark place forgotten in time, a figure sat at a wooden desk. Gloom surrounded the man, who was leaning over a quietly busy laptop set up in front of him. His dark eyes glowed in the dim light; the room was lit only by a small window set into a thick wall far beyond him.
The computer followed a tapped in command, but responded with nothing. The man stared down at the blank screen, waiting. Suddenly it came to life as a tiny line of green numbers scrolled across. He watched them with his busy eyes, expression utterly untranslatable. The readout was followed with a few letters, assembling to tell him everything he needed to know – LSK;?85;FR;25.8.06.
Lena was shopping again.

[denial]

By: Tatufreak


Part Two Chapter Five - They

Banner: http://img13.photobucket.com/albums/...freak/P2c5.jpg

“This would look good on you,” the blonde girl said, holding up a small blue blouse.
Next to her, Yulia obediently nodded with disinterest. Her long, slim arms were already being pulled down with the weight of twelve large shopping bags, and she was vaguely worried by the thought that Lena seemed ready to add to their number in the near future.
Now the blonde picked up a soft, grey-blue wooly sweater. “That would go with your eyes beautifully.” She threw it over her arm and moved on to the next rack, humming to herself pleasantly. She obviously found shopping extremely relaxing, whereas Yulia found herself becoming increasingly more anxious. The shop was a typical Parisian boutique – brightly lit and sporting the latest fashionable cuts and colours. Music played faintly over the radio system, but the words and actual tune were indistinguishable. Outside the silvery glass windows a short, close-grown miniature hedge blocked the bustling street from view.
“Yulia?”
The girl turned quickly to see Lena holding out a large sunhat.
“We might have a client with a rich target sometime soon – that means the Bahamas. We can’t have you burn – you’ve got such pale skin. Try this on for size.” Without waiting for a response Lena placed the hat heavily on Yulia’s head, smiling a little as the oversized brim slipped down over one of her large dark eyes. “It’s perfect. Fits admirably well.”
Yulia raised a hand to lift the hat a little, enabling her to see.
“I like it,” she whispered softly. “Thank you.”
“That’s about it, isn’t it? There’s nothing really left to see. Let’s move on – are you hungry? I’m hungry. Let’s go get some food, there’s this café down the street that has the most delicious-” Lena halted her relaxed chatter as Yulia’s little hand took an iron grip on her arm. She looked down at it, then at the dark girl, then at where her gaze was directed.
Outside the shop window, beyond the hedges and across the street, two men stood side-by-side. They stared in through the glass, straight at the girls. They were cold; unmoving and quiet to the extreme – time seemed frozen around their identically suited bodies.
“Who are they, Lena?”
The blonde stared, eyes narrowed. She answered quietly, distorting her mouth almost as if she was afraid the men could lip-read.
“Aren’t they the same type of men that attacked us in Russia?”
Yulia peered at them through a shield of gauze netting.
“I think so. Maybe, they have the same colour ties – and that little blue badge on their left lapels…”
Lena glanced at her sharply.
“Hm…you could be right. Well, it looks like we’re unarmed and unprepared for an attack. Or-” she watched Yulia colour deeply. “maybe we’re not.”
“I couldn’t help it,” the younger girl explained, drawing her gun from a shopping bag, “I just can’t go anywhere without it…sorry…”
Lena gave a little smile at the ironic situation they now found themselves in.
“Nevermind. Just next time,”
“I know, I know,”
“And you promise to-”
“Yeah.”
“Ok.
“Shall we?”
“Now?”
“Why not?”
“Here?”
“Why not?”
“I don’t think-”
“Yeah ok.”
“Let’s just-”
“Consider it done.”
The girls turned as one and left the store, Lena throwing down the selected clothes before they walked out.
“We can always-”
“Sure we can.”
“That’s very-”
“Annoying?” Yulia glanced up and smiled. “Yeah, I know.”

[denial]

By: Tatufreak



Part Two Chapter Six - Ass-Wupping

Banner: http://img13.photobucket.com/albums/...freak/P2c6.jpg


There was a pretty Parisian street in mid-summer. Brightly-colored umbrellas blossomed along the hot streets, cars beeped occasionally and the bustling people lining the shops and pavements moved in a lazy pattern, chatting and going about their lives. Two young girls separated from the thronging crowd, one laden with shopping bags, the other twisting her blonde curls around a finger. The darker one with the fair complexion seemed to enjoy the summer sun greatly, lifting her face to the light and sighing in pleasure. Her companion, in contrast, seemed anxious to get out of the hot sunlight, readjusting her sunglasses and looking uncomfortably warm. They crossed a busy road and headed for a nearby park. They moved lethargically, as if tired out by their shopping, looking really ready for a cool break on the grass.
Suddenly they were gone, they disappeared as unobtrusively from the scene as if they'd never been there in the first place.
Two men standing in a darker region of the park seemed to suddenly wake up. They scanned the area from behind their sunglasses, at first in an inconspicuous, relaxed way. After a moment however they became more perturbed and began searching in earnest, peering around trees and talking in low voices. Eventually the slightly more thick-set of the pair walked away towards the edge of the park to get a better view of the surrounding streets, leaving his companion to scan the perimeter.
His name was Olivier. He was thirty-one, was not married (although he had come close after high-school) was a non-smoker, enjoyed playing squash and tennis, liked the Rolling Stones, and now felt a gentle tap on his shoulder. There was a soft touch to his jawbone, a flash of light, and then cool darkness.
His feet made a dragging sound as he was pulled through the undergrowth.
"Why do you have to do that Volk?"
"I had to knock him out..."
"But a simple smack could have done..."
"But there would have been traces, like a bruise."
"Well, yeah ok, but...you're so garish."
Olivier groaned softly.
Both girls looked down at him; one smiling darkly, the other hanging behind and blushing.
"Hi," said the blonde, brightly.
Olivier maneuvered himself up onto his elbows, peering at the girl through narrowed eyes.
"Who are you?" he grunted, knowing full well who she was but forced out of habit to ask.
"I'm the person with a gun pointed at you," she replied, happily.
"Ah."
The smaller dark girl stepped forward. "We want to ask the questions now, if that's ok with you."
Lena rolled her eyes at the pleasantries. She crouched down, placing her knee firmly on the man's chest. One hand aimed Yulia's gun at his head, while the other gripped his tie firmly, forcing his head up.
"Listen, you-" she began through gritted teeth. Yulia calmly but firmly interrupted.
"If you don't mind, we'd like to ask why you and your friend were watching us."
The man stared at her. Was this some sort of joke? He'd taken interrogation before, and something definitely wasn't right here. Glancing at the gun pointed steadily at his head, he closed his eyes. Whatever this was, it was working. The dark-haired girl was polite, but there was the tiniest edge in her voice - a barely noticeable grate below the bottom edge of the sound that hinted strongly that he was sitting on a time bomb, and that somewhere where the universes collided, buried deep inside the heart of worlds, something was going TICK.
He bared his teeth in a grim smile. "What if we weren't watching you at all?"
Lena shifted the gun ever so slightly to remind him it was there. She let go of his tie to regard her nails with apparent boredom.
"We don't like witnesses," she murmured.
Olivier clenched his teeth and brought a foot flying up behind Lena, arching his back against the ground with the momentum. He smacked her sharply in the head and caught the gun as it fell. Now he looked up and his eyes widened in horror as he realized the dark girl had completely vanished. That same second he felt a light pressure on his neck. It was a gentle enough grip, but cables of taught iron ran through Yulia's slim arms. He had already seen what she could do, and now Olivier knew that she could easily snap his spinal cord - perhaps fatally.
"I think that's mine," she said pleasantly. "Can I have it back?"
Olivier caught her off guard. He hurled himself backwards with her behind him, throwing her fragile body against a nearby tree-trunk and crushing it beneath his own weighty momentum. With unexpected speed she reacted; she braced her hands against his shoulders and managed to twist her elbows inwards, placing them close to her ribs against the trunk. With this she gathered enough strength to push the man forwards slightly, just enough so that she could swing up her legs, knees tucked up below her chin. She shot her feet into the man's back, propelling him forwards; using this she caught her own motion and flipped neatly in mid-air, landing on her stomach with both arms outstretched. Savagely she slashed at the man's feet and ankles, tripping him up onto the sandy ground. He fell forward onto his face and Yulia sprang to her feet, temper thoroughly aroused. Seizing his legs, she braced herself and began to throw her weight around.
Literally.
She wasn't heavy, but by leaning completely backwards she was able to shift the man. Now she used all the momentum she possessed, yanking him off the ground feet first. She used her own body as a simple weight, turning in a tight circle to bring the man flying through the air in a large arc. He smashed head-first into that same tree trunk, and when Yulia let his ankles go he sank to the ground with a thick, sickening thud.
Dust settled, birds started singing again, Yulia brushed herself off, picked up her gun and helped Lena to her feet.
“I did ask politely, and I tried to make it less garish...” she said, almost anxiously. The blonde glanced at the crumpled figure beneath the tree and began to rub her head, wincing.
“Yeah.”
Yulia looked down at her handiwork, then at the gun in her hand. “No bodycount,” she whispered, a smile briefly lighting up her pretty face. Then she glanced back down again. “What a mess.” Without hesitation she shouldered the man's heavy body in a fireman's lift, swinging him up onto a low branch of the tree. “That should keep him a while…”
Lena risked a quick smile, before turning away.
“Come on, Yulia. Let's go before the other one gets back.”
The younger girl took a last look at Olivier, and then as she went to follow her companion, the blonde half-turned with a colder smile.
“And you see? You didn't need to bring the gun after all.”
The dark girl looked at her, then at her weapon, then back at the man. She colored, and her eyes filled slowly with shimmering tears - half of embarrassment, half of the hurt of being chided.
And then, strangely, she felt a touch on her shoulder. Lena had gently placed her hand there, eyes friendly and full of quiet smiles.
“Come on, Yulia. Let's go.”
The girls melted into the buzzing crowds once more, and the scene was as if they had never been there at all. Children laughed, cars hooted, flowers swayed in the window boxes.
And somewhere far, far away, a man began to smile.

End of Part Two

[tatufreak]

Honestly, I'm really impressed at how much you've updated! Thanks...saved me a lot of work so...any comments?

[Veggie Delite]

this fic is so good. i mean, they have guns...right? lol

ok, ok... i like this story because u manage to describe everything, but somehow i never skip those parts. usually i always skip not important parts, just scan through them... coz i read a bit fast. but not this time

[denial]

well .. honestly tatufreak .. I found this fic different from other fanfic in way it was written. I think its your style of writing, your sentence and description. I have to put lots of focus on it and have to make myself imagine the situation since you do describe then almost very detail .. well . I can't compare with other "action/stunt"" fiction writer because this the first that I read that full of it .. so .. I'm a bit slow .and still still reading those I updated last night ... but I'll finish soon .. thanks ..

not much emotion I think .. well I dont remember I felt anything so far .. just a little shock here and there and those girls would just kill .. when Yulia just shot that guy on the head .. I imagine she had a flat face like this that time .. no emotion .. just kill .. .and its cool!!

so ...

:::aims her gun at $in::::squintting her eyes::::

[Veggie Delite]

i took out u'r bullets...

finish the reading, then we can play

[denial]

Originally Posted by $in

i took out u'r bullets...

I have spare ...this .. the other gun... and careful $in ... I am pretty good with gun .. at the game archade at least


Dear tatufreak, you see .. I started reading this fic ..I like it the first time at the mention of the gun .. and also your descriptive sentences ...I admit... it was pretty difficult for me to adopt myself to your writing style at first ...that sometimes I had to read a line many times .. But as I continue to read.. I'm getting use to it.. there was not much to feel there ..I turned off all the noise around me .. and let only the dim light.. just that the sound from the street that I could not control .. I read this heartless .. but later on something did happened .. and I began to understand the characters.. and to feel them .. my curiosity triggered..

Anyway .. I really like your writing style .. so I listed here some of my favorite "moments" that you crafted perfectly with words ...

It was then that he’d detected the slightest of touches to his hair, but before he’d had time to turn Yulia had shot a silenced bullet into his head.
Projected bodycount three, she’d thought to herself, balancing carefully on one hand, I mustn’t go over that.

--- oh wow .. I adore this ...

There was something in this moment – something inexplicable. All she knew was that the thrill of killing, hiding, hunting…it all stirred something deep inside her, like a sleeping monster buried in the grey mists of time. Why did it feel so right?

---

“We are not a team,” Lena hissed furiously, eyes blazing. “We just work together. That’s all.”
She turned abruptly and stormed down the hallway. She’d only gone a few steps before suddenly gripping the handle of a door next to her. Twisting it furiously, she opened it, levelled her gun and shot a single bullet into the darkness. This done, she slammed the door shut again and threw a glance at Yulia.
“Mission completed. See you at the airport.”
With this she was gone, leaving the dark-haired girl standing on her own in the corridor, two men slumped at her feet. Her hand was still raised to her cheek, and tears began to stream slowly down her fingers; silver-clear dripping down to mix with and swirl into spilt crimson blood.

----oii .. Lena is hard! but I like it .. *feels some emotion there*

Far below a million people were relaxing with their loved ones, tied down in the world with happy cares, no idea that high above their sleepy heads a brutally unhappy, hopelessly broken young woman was thinking about them. She had no loved ones, she had no threads. She wasn’t tied to the world in any way – If I died, no one would miss me…no one would know.
“I’d know,” Yulia whispered, still watching the lights below. The magic shimmered and hung heavily in the air, and the dark-haired girl put out a little hand to touch the cool glass. “And I’d miss you.”

--- see I love this fic very much ... its in the sentences..

“She doesn’t know her own face,” Yulia whispered slowly, referring to herself in third person. “She is a stranger to her own reflection.” She speaks dreamily; trancelike – as if she’s remembering a long-forgotten line of poetry, a chant hidden within the veils of a childhood even she can’t remember.
Then her eyes move slowly to Lena’s reflection, catching them and holding them with a force and fragile brutality that shocks the latter, forcing her to concentrate on wiping up the toothpaste spilled from her toothbrush.

She’s a kid with amnesia. She doesn’t know her own face – big deal. She’ll remember it soon enough…
“And then I’ll be out of your way.”
…
“What?”
Yulia glances at her quickly, and for a second a desire to draw aside the curtain and let Lena peek into her true nature invades her irresistibly.
“That’s something else I can do. I can read people like books – their body language and their eyes say more in a moment than they ever could…ever.”
Lena frowns at her, but it’s a good sort of frown.

Even jokes can hurt her…she’s so fragile, and yet she’s not really. It’s a paradox – she’s undisturbed by killing and blood, and yet the lightest of criticism scars her. What is she? She’s like a steel machine with a heart of…pink…chocolate. Somehow.

Only if you’d been there; a silent watcher with glowing eyes and the gift of wisdom; would you have seen the flash of pain cross the blonde’s face.
But…you aren’t.
Are you..

Originally Posted by tatufreak

Notes: A few changes from now on. This will be the last mushy chapter for a while, as you can probably tell it's a bit boring to read when it's like this! Sorry guys...I didn't mean to make it boring...
Anyway, on with the story!

-- its NOT boring this way!!

“You want to be a part of them, don’t you? You want to have fun with them, to belong in their groups.”
Yulia shook her head. “I don’t think I do…I think maybe…I think I, I think it’s just that…I don’t want any harm to come to them…I think I want to – is it wrong to want to protect them, Lena? To make sure they stay happy and alive and…and free, just like this?” Lena considered this for a moment, before flashing a smile and turning down the street.

He watched them with his busy eyes, expression utterly untranslatable. The readout was followed with a few letters, assembling to tell him everything he needed to know – LSK;?85;FR;25.8.06.
Lena was shopping again.

-- Let me guess!!! Let me guess!! this guy watching Lena credit card spending!!

“We can always-”
“Sure we can.”
“That’s very-”
“Annoying?” Yulia glanced up and smiled. “Yeah, I know.”

LoL LoL ..

The younger girl took a last look at Olivier, and then as she went to follow her companion, the blonde half-turned with a colder smile.
“And you see? You didn't need to bring the gun after all.”
The dark girl looked at her, then at her weapon, then back at the man. She colored, and her eyes filled slowly with shimmering tears - half of embarrassment, half of the hurt of being chided.

--- ohh c'mon Yulia . shoot him!! shoot him in the head!

And somewhere far, far away, a man began to smile.

hmmmm....???


*off to get more updates*

[tatufreak]

Do you know what, denial? Out of all the comments I've ever had on this fic, I think yours is the most special, simply because it's obvious you've actually read and enjoyed the story...
You and $in rock.
Thank you.

[denial]

tatufreak, ..thank you ... for writing this ... your fic rock!

[denial]

By: tatufreak

Part Three Chapter One - Muse

Banner: http://img13.photobucket.com/albums/...k/P3c1_-_2.jpg

Yulia woke up with a towel on her face.
She was lying curled up on the bed the caretaker had brought up the night before - it was a single mattress with rusty springs and several protruding lumps in it, but in her exhausted state she had fallen asleep before her head had even hit the pillow; she could've slept on anything in that state. She and Lena had been to the gym the previous day, working out thoroughly after the episode involving Olivier. Yulia's muscles were toned and strong, but were not quite ready for the physical onslaught of three hours of Lena-coached training.
Having a towel on her face really didn't help things that much. After a moment's consideration she lifted a corner and peered into the bright blue eyes of her partner in crime.
"Come on, get up," Lena said, prodding the dark girl several times in the duvet. "We have a client. Coffee's waiting, no time to get dressed, just put on a dressing-gown and join me." She emphasized every other word with a poke, and soon Yulia's sleepy head appeared fully from under the towel Lena had thrown at her. She yawned and reached for her new gown slung over the bedpost. Shivering at the coolness of the silk against her bare skin, she tied a knot around her waist and rubbed her eyes.
Lena watched her from her seat at the pool table. She was adorable in her early-morning state. Little wisps of dark hair brushed her rosy cheeks, all fluffy and flicky. Her long eyelashes looked even longer, her tiny kitten's mouth seemed soft when opened in a hastily covered yawn. Even her expressive eyes looked different; there was something happier and softer within her in the mornings that tended to fade into darkness during the day.
Quickly, find something else to look at.
Furiously the blonde dropped her eyes to the computer, tapping a few unnecessary keys to distract herself. Yulia joined her quickly, examining the lacy stitching on the insides of her sleeves.
“This gown is really pretty Lena,” she murmured, “thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure. Look at this.”
The blonde passed her a sheaf of paper. Yulia took a glance at the letterhead and the signature before flicking through it idly.
“This is the Maxman Corporation’s Japanese Headquarters. Here are the plans, here are the ducts, here’s the electrical grid and the security system…”
Lena pulled the papers out of her hands.
“I know that,” she snapped, listlessly. “They came this morning in the post. Along with this.” She separated a note and handed it to Yulia while tapping on the computer with her other hand. “While you were sleeping this morning I’ve been researching Maxman.”
“James Donahue, CEO…” Yulia scanned the note. “Date – payment – plans enclosed; travel arrangements…look Lena, they made travel arrangements for us!”
“What?” Lena glanced over to her. “Oh…they do that sometimes, just to make sure you take the case. You know, they can check up on whether you catch the plane or not; if you don’t they know to make other arrangements.”
“First class, too!”
“We fly first regardless of whether they’re paying or not. We always fly first.”
Yulia turned the note over. The other side was blank, so she laid it down on top of the other papers. “What would have happened if they’d bought us economy class tickets?” she mused, half smiling.
Lena glanced up. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“We wouldn’t take the case, of course.”
Yulia glanced at her; she was smiling coldly, as if to test the younger girl. They stared at each other for a brief moment before Lena continued.
“So we’re flying tonight. You’d better go pack for us while I get some more information.”
“Pack what?”
There was a pause, then Lena pressed a button on the computer and swivelled her chair sideways to face Yulia. Resting an elbow on the table and her chin in her hand, she looked at the girl with her big blue eyes, an expression of something halfway between amusement and annoyance flickering across her face.
“Figure it out.”
The dark haired girl put out a little hand and began to count off her fingers.
“Well, we need our pyjamas, toiletries and that…” she paused as Lena began to shake a finger, and then began to wonder how she could have made a mistake already.
“You don’t know Japanese hotels, Volk. They provide PJs, toiletries, stuff like that. Think more technically.”
“Well, obviously we need our guns, ammo, cleaning fluid, cases and laser sights…main suitcase.”
“Main? We’re travelling light.”
“Then we’ll need a change of clothes, and our fighting gear. Is that it?”
“Mostly.”
Yulia waited for a while but no further communication seemed to be forthcoming, so she turned and began to look for the items to pack. Her search took her around the apartment, with each retrieval she went back to Lena’s large double bed where she stacked the objects in neat piles ready for packing into the suitcase. The latter item was a little harder to find, but she eventually located a little cupboard high up in the bathroom wall. Standing on her toes and stretching her full length meant she could just reach the case with her fingertips, so she balanced on one foot and pulled herself up far enough so she could grab it.
Just as she was about to reach for it she paused and looked down at her foot. Her arch was incredibly strong and her toes held her entire weight, her balance and legs seemed tuned for this. Now she became pleased with her foot, smiling down at it in surprise.
“I didn’t know you could do that,” she said to it, studying her smooth instep and slim ankles. “You don’t look like you should be able to do that.”
She placed her other foot on the ground and let her toes and arches carry her. Reaching into her pocket she withdrew a round, familiar object that turned out to be the watch. She clicked it open and smiled as the hauntingly simple melody began to play into the air, bringing shadowy spirits and the faintest butterflies with it to hover just out of sight.
Very slowly, Yulia began to dance. The patterns she traced with her body were eccentric but ancient and beautiful, like a forgotten language etched into the stones of a lost cathedral. Light from the ceiling lamps caught her hair and shone down her arms, casting graceful shadows across the floor as she danced enchanted steps. Her eyes looked past the walls and the city. She was somewhere ancient and dead, dancing in a stone courtyard on a dying world, lost in the whorls of time. Her body remembered the movements, echoing something done many lives before. She was the light in her courtyard, around her fragile spirit enormous dragons stirred out of the dust, climbing into the dark air and circling her dance of light with great beats of their time-heavy wings. The ancient monsters surrounded her, captured by the spells of her magical dance, drawn to the girl as moths to their flame. They followed her movements, glowing eyes searching for a way into her world of light. Her dance kept them away and drew them near, with every curve of her body forgotten spirits stirred and awakened, each slowly shimmering between reality and–
“What’s with the music?”
Yulia was jerked out of her reverie as Lena’s voice cut through her muse. She glanced up guiltily to see the blonde with her arms crossed leaning against the doorframe. Quickly she dropped back onto the ground, snapping the watch shut and slipping it back into her pocket. The last icy drops of the melody still hung in the air, and the dark-haired girl was confused and surprised to find herself back in the world of blue tiles, ceiling lights and suitcases.
She dropped her tousled head. “I was looking for the suitcase…”
“It’s in the cupboard, not in danceworld.” With a frustrated sigh, Lena reached up beyond Yulia’s head and pulled the case down, using her extra height as an advantage. She handed it to the girl in a deadpan fashion and watched as she took it, a smile of patronising irony in her blue eyes.
The moment Yulia was gone, however, it changed to one of thoughtful interest.
No one dances that way without training…she’s obviously got natural talent, but to dance like that at so young would require one of the best teachers in the world, and very long durations of time in their company. She was on her pointes too; even when I did ballet I only just reached that stage. The strange thing is, she didn’t need blocked shoes or anything – the best dancers can dance barefoot with care, but she seemed so strong and sure. Lena’s forehead creased further.
Maybe she was so careless because she didn’t know she could do it, so finding out that she could dance like a spirit would have been a pleasure too great to pass up.Now the look of confusion passed from her eyes and she straightened up, her mind set on one objective.
No matter what, I have to find out who she is…

…even if I have to kill her.

[denial]

By: tatufreak

Part Three Chapter Two, part 1 - Jitters

Banner: http://img13.photobucket.com/albums/...freak/P3c2.jpg

Maxman Corporation Headquarters in Tokyo. A vast glass-and-steel building rose from the depths of the city, glittering in the sunlight and arching towards the sky above it. It was relatively similar to the hi-rise buildings that surrounded it, but it was starkly beautiful nevertheless - a mind-hurtling display of mankind's technology and affluence. At its street-level base a glass reception desk opened straight out onto the pavement, set off by lush plant areas and steel sculptures. A hundred feet above a solitary man stood in his office, hands clasped behind his back. He had a striking face; well-hewn features began with his chiselled jawline and piercing blue eyes, reminiscent of an alpine model. His hair was a distinguished silver; overall he had the looks of a timelessly handsome older man. He was a man known and widely acclaimed for his quiet determination and ruthless efficiency, the dark figure who stayed behind the scenes and at the head of the table, calmly making sure that everything went to plan. He was a man who got what he wanted, achieved higher than his contemporaries, drove an understated Jaguar and wore tailor-made black suits from Saville Row. In short he was a figure of style and success, as cold and beautiful as the building he stood in.
"What a man," Lena said softly, studying his chiselled face through her high-powered binoculars. "Shame we have to kill him."
She was leaning against the dark glass of the window of TaTu's Tokyo hotel room in direct line of sight with the Maxman building and, ultimately, with their projected target. The direct sunlight was dimmed out by the high-tech window glass, so a soft light fell across the girls, illuminating and warming them. Yulia was sitting across the room with her gun, carefully running a static free cloth down the barrel. Momentarily she would pause and examine her work, tipping her weapon this way and that in the mid-afternoon light to check any imperfections. Lena's gun lay on the table in front of her - she'd already cleaned and checked it carefully. This meant that the blonde was free to undertake surveillance of their target, unwittingly regarding the bustling empire at his feet.
"I wish we'd brought a snipe rifle," Lena commented, half annoyed. "We could take him from here." She let the binoculars fall by their string around her neck, lifting her hands into the mime of a rifle. Cocking her head, she closed one eye and sighted the silhouetted figure. "Bang."
Yulia laid down her gun and pushed out her chair, rising to join the blonde at the window. "But we couldn't, could we? There would be too many clues..."
Lena glanced at her. "How many, exactly?"
The dark girl began to count off her fingers. "There would be the aspect of his fall. That combined with the shatterpoint of the glass and the orientation of the bullet would show any half-decent detective the direction from which the shot was fired."
She's so confident about this, Lena thought. Anything else sets her stammering, but it's like assassination is her tried and tested subject...something she's been bred for.
Yulia continued without her pauses, her brilliance shining through her usual shyness.
"Obviously if you measured the amount the bullet de-accelerated as it passed through his body you could work out how much it had slowed down over travelling, meaning you'd end up with both direction and a rough estimate of how far away the firing weapon was at the time of the shot. Put these together and it points you to exactly one building..."
"The Tokyo City Hotel," Lena finished, eyes shining with a challenge. "But how would that lead straight to us?"
Yulia tapped the glass. "We're on the twenty-fourth floor. If you hadn't noticed, there's no way to open the windows - they're sealed shut for safety reasons. A shot would have to be fired through the glass, creating another shatterpoint and the only clue the police would need. It'd then be simple for them to find out who we were - even though we're checked in under aliases, a simple DNA test of the renewed items such as glasses and sheets would lead them straight to us."
"And if we went up to the roof?"
"These six floors are the only levels that have straight sight contact with James Donahue's office - it's no accident that this room was booked for us."
Lena threw up her hands and laughed. "Ok, you got me. It was only speculation anyway."
Yulia dared to risk a tiny answering smile, a warm feeling beginning to fill her. Had she really managed to please Lena?
A cloud passed over the sun. Both girls looked up to check the weather, anxious about that night's mission settings. The sky seemed to be darkening quickly; sullen clouds were gathering darkly on the horizon, promising rain in the night.
The two girls stood side-by-side, each pondering on the forthcoming events. Quietly they walked through the mission with understated apprehension, their moods brooding and solemn. Lena's eyelids flickered as she dropped her gaze, a twinge of guilt touching her at the impending death of the man. He looked so noble and hard-working, a dash of true class and style in a world of lessening sophistication. For a stated sum his life was to be ended that night - and by her own hands, nonetheless.
As she glanced down at them, Yulia gazed at her sadly. "Do you know what we are, Lena?"
The blonde didn't look up. "What are we, Volk?"
"We're maidens..."
This time she glanced at the younger girl staring out at the late sky, her brown eyes looking almost red in the strange stormy light. They flashed as she turned to catch her gaze.
"We're maidens with black hands."
Something buried and hidden surfaced and seared across Lena's mind, burning into the darkness a terrifyingly vivid memory. It vanished as it appeared, drained away by the defences she'd built up over a lifetime.
She let out an involuntary gasp, leaning forward to place her hands against the window glass while she recovered.
Yulia watched her with horror, desperately hoping she wasn't the cause of her partner's sudden shock.
A breathless moment passed before both girls started out of their darkening moods, Lena skipping across to the light switches and flipping all the overhead spotlights on.
"We're just being silly," she laughed, "it's just pre-mission jitters, that's all. We need some food for this evening before we go out, I'm going down to the streets to get some. Stay in the hotel, I won't be long."
Yulia nodded and sat own at the table again, picking up her gun and staring down the barrel. She smiled happily at it - it certainly was a lovely weapon, and she'd taken great care of it. She knew it would never fail her, and now, slipping it from one hand to another, she enjoyed the familiar weight and texture. She understood guns; they were a part of her.
The door clicked behind Lena as she left the room, causing Yulia to glance up. Now she was gone, silence settled on the room and began to filter through to the dark-haired girl. Quietly she reached up and flipped off the switches, smiling in the cool darkness. She picked up the binoculars from the bed and walked over to the window, surveying the view. The evening had come on extremely fast, speeded by the gathering storm. Bright buildings and light-lined streets shone out of the gloom, cheerfully proclaiming that despite man's inability to control the weather they could still make their own little worlds hospitable and warm.
Yulia's dark eyes travelled over the tiny lights and people with a strange sense of calm and detachment. They made her feel special - elite. She was sitting in a quiet room hundreds of feet above their bustling heads, a little girl with the power to kill...and no memory of how she came about it.
Yulia lifted the binoculars to her eyes, searching the Maxman building. She let her gaze travel past Donahue - he didn't interest her; he was just a target. What interested her was the layout of the office.
James Donahue worked late three nights of the week, tonight he would be going home at eleven. He was a calculated machine, Lena and Yulia were relying on the fact that he hated any deviations from his scheduled life. The mission was to take place between ten and eleven, with the aim of eliminating their target at twenty-five past.
Lena was going to go in through the ground floor ventilation chutes, making her way towards the twentieth floor. While she was doing this Yulia would be infiltrating the building by scaling a complicated system of fire escapes on the North side of the Maxman HQ.
At ten past Lena would be able to travel towards the electrical controls through the 20th floor intersection with the ventilation shafts. She would then wait until exactly twenty past, when an electronic signal from Yulia (now on the 25th level) would show her to be ready. Lena would then cut the power from the main and backup generators, plunging the building into total darkness. When this happened, the plan was that Yulia would make her way towards Donahue's office, infiltrating his private, closed network of ventilation shafts from the floor above. She would crawl through until she was directly over him, thereby avoiding the backup security systems that would still be active on the 24th floor. When she was positioned over him she would signal Lena, then drop into the office and dispatch Donahue. Once that was done she would climb back into the shafts and meet Lena twelve blocks away in a deserted carpark at eleven fifteen, with eight minutes' leeway.
Now the younger Assassin was taking in every detail of the office, watching. She memorised the position of the wide desk and the potted plants, as well as the chairs and the coffee table against the other wall.
Then something caught her eye. It was just a flicker, a tiny discrepancy that to anyone else would have gone unnoticed. Yulia only just caught it out of the corner of her eye, suddenly alert. James Donahue had sat down at his desk, making a very slight shift to the left as he'd done so. Now, as Yulia watched, it became obvious that there was something attached to the underside of the table that he had moved slightly to avoid hitting. This didn't really alarm her until a thought seared through her mind.
"It can't be," she shook her head, "they would have told us."
Nevertheless, she pushed the binocular high-power switch further and zoomed in. There could be no doubt, there was definitely something strapped to the desk.
Strapped...
Without waiting for any further confirmation, Yulia slid her new cell phone out of her pocket, flipping it open and pressing 1 - the set speed-dial. It rang for a moment before the other end was picked up. Yulia didn't wait for an answer.
"Lena," she said, quietly. "He's got a gun under his desk."
There was a pause before the other girl replied.
"This makes things a bit more complicated. Are you confident you can take him out?"
Yulia lifted her binoculars back to her eyes with one hand while still holding the phone to her ear.
"He's...the way he's writing, his fingers are a little stiff...he obviously spends a lot of time...I mean, I think he basically writes most of the day - that means he won't be able to handle the gun as well as I...I mean I might be able to get a better shot at him..."
She lapsed into an embarassed silence, so Lena confirmed the conversation.
"Basically he's not as good as your are. Well you'd better make sure Volk - if you think there's any possibility he might be able to get a clear shot we should walk away for tonight, there's no use in risking it and getting hurt."
While Lena had been talking the younger girl had been carefully monitoring Donahue's hand movements, and now she felt confident.
"I'm sure it'll be ok...I think I can do it."
"You sure, Volk?"
"Ye...I think so, Katin."
There was an ominous pause, and Yulia scrunched up her nose in horror, dropping her binoculars to smack herself on the head with her free hand.
"I'm sorry...I shouldn't have..."
"Don't let it happen again, Volk. I can do it, but remember that I'm the boss here."
"I'm..."
"Forget it. I'll be back in ten, start getting ready."
Yulia switched her phone off and put it carefully on the table. She then pulled the binoculars from around her neck, placing them next to the cell. Her hands found her face and she dropped onto the bed, covering her eyes. Tears began to run down her fingers as she slipped backwards, and very slowly all the pain, worry and misery were cried out into the sobs of the dark-haired girl.
When Lena finally returned to the hotel room a few hours later she found Yulia sleeping sideways across the bed, her cheeks still wet from tears. She dropped the bags of food she had aquired on the desk before very slowly approaching the bed, settling herself down next to the girl and kicking off her shoes. She flipped on the TV and opened a packet of popcorn, switching between channels before finally settling for a rerun of the anime movie Akira.
A few minutes later Yulia opened her dark eyes and glanced up at Lena, who didn't bother to turn around but somehow knew she had woken. “We're leaving in two hours, Volk. You might want a shower before we go, there are towels in the bathroom.”
A rush of painful affection overwhelmed little Yulia, but she restrained herself from hugging the older girl and desperately pouring out her problems. Instead she forced herself to flash a tiny smile and push herself up from the bed.
“Thank you,” she whispered, putting as much meaning as she possibly could into those two words. Then she turned, walked into the bathroom and turned the shower as hot as she could stand it.
As the sound of running water echoed through to Lena, the blonde sat and stared at the closed bathroom door, a handle of popcorn frozen on its way to her mouth.
___

[denial]

By: tatufreak

Part Three Chapter Two, part 2 - Jitters

http://img13.photobucket.com/albums/...freak/P3c2.jpg

Yulia emerged from the bathroom twenty minutes later, rubbing a towel vigorously through her short dark hair. She was wrapped up warmly in one of the hotel's fluffy dressing gowns and smelled pleasantly of Dove bodywash. Lena was still watching Akira, the popcorn now completely gone. She turned on the bed and studied Yulia before wiping her hands on her towel, which she had laid across the bed after completely drying her hair. It was now beginning to flick up at the ends into an adorable style, and the younger girl stretched luxuriously onto the wide bed, feeling refreshed and clean.
"I'll take a shower now too," Lena began, pushing herself up. "Get dressed in your underthings and basic clothes and I'll join you in a second. We need to run through the outfit preparations together - this'll be our first real mission as a team."
Yulia nodded from her spot on the bed and reached for the remote control. Anime didn't interest her, she wanted something more relaxing to calm her jitters down. Also, the sight of a psychic and immensely powerful child destroying Tokyo using his mindpower alone did nothing for her mood or sense of safety, especially while she was sitting in the city itself.
Lena disappeared into the bathroom for a while, leaving Yulia on her own again. She flipped through the channels for a while before discovering that the Matrix was playing. Leaving it on this she went over to the suitcase and slipped the catches, lifting the lid and surveying her few, carefully selected clothes.
There were a few items that she pushed aside before she got to the pile of 'underthings'. Choosing a pair of cropped shorts emblazoned with the image of Mickey Mouse, she smiled at the recent memory of their purchase.
"Mickey Mouse? You don't want Mickey Mouse underwear! What are you, eight?"
"I don't even know my real age..."
"Ok, enough with the emotion already. I'm tired and hungry, you can have the underwear. Just don't come to me when you get hit by a bus and the doctors in the emergency room start laughing as they strip off your corpse, ok?"
And Lena had bought her the Mickey Mouse underwear, which Yulia now admired on herself in the mirror. She tipped her tousled head sideways and smiled at herself. When she was satisfied she put on a white tank top and a pair of tiny black shorts that only just covered her treasured new underwear. This done, she was just about to start combing through her hair when a movement from the TV caught her eye. She stared in fascination as Neo and Morpheus began to fight each other in the Chinese dojo. She followed their precise motions with their eyes, hands unconsciously beginning to twitch. Something in their frenzied battle of martial arts stirred her imagination and captured her completely. The music became faster and more complex, and she suddenly felt a surge of energy. Rising to her feet, she faced the bathroom and took a stance. She didn't really have to think about it, the position was so natural that her body seemed to fall into it. All she knew was that her arms must go like so, her legs must be this far apart, her fists would be clenched with the thumbs pointing at her little fingers, like so, her chin must be lifted into the air above squared shoulders, head thrown back.
It all came so normally, as if she'd done it a million times before.
Then she began to spar. At first she tried the simplest couple of kicks, but her natural sense of rhythm kicked in to the fast music and she found herself slipping into something a little harder.
A front kick was turned into a side kick, which she twisted under and transformed into a neck-bound crescent kick. As she landed on both her feet she twisted her upper body and spun on her momentum, slicing out with one leg and following with the other. Her arms came round and she threw a vicious double-punch into the air, turning to block an imaginary volley of attacks before dropping to the ground and snaking out her legs in a style reminiscent of extreme breakdancing. Twisting gracefully upwards in a spin kick, she turned, slashed her hands forwards into a combination cut, and managed to stop them an inch from either side of Lena's neck as the blonde stepped out of the bathroom.
"Save it for later," the blonde remarked, completely unfazed.
Yulia followed her to the suitcase where the older girl separated out two pairs of dark trousers; lightweight, but woven out of high-durability materials, perfect for crawling through the air vents later that night. Matching belts were added with concealed inner straps for carrying guns and tools, they were wide straps of black leather with white stitching. Both girls then put on dark blue body-hugging T-shirts with green sleeves, which Yulia noticed were made by Ralph Lauren.
As Lena caught her glancing at the little polo symbol, she commented, "Just because we kill people doesn't mean we don't have style." Yulia nodded her silent assent and turned to her next item of clothing, a pair of tight-fitting arm warmers. They were technically to cover up her support bandages, but they helped with warmth as well. She took the roll of white wraps that Lena held out and stretched a length between her hands before placing an end over one of her wrists and beginning to bind the bandages tightly around it. When she had finished completely and tied off she quickly did the same to the other arm before handing the roll back to Lena. As she flexed her fingers, Yulia felt strength seep into her arms from an unknown source; she knew that the mission must start soon or she would be in danger of losing the surge. Pulling her arm warmers over her support bandages, she sat on the bed and kicked her feet while she watched Lena wrapping up her own wrists.
Only then did both girls strap a special watch to their left arm and a small communication device to their right. Lena glanced down at the timer and pressed a button.
"Synchronise."
Yulia glanced at her own and then at the large city clock of glowing digits a few buildings away, visible from their window. It read 8:47, which she quickly set into her watch before flicking to the seconds dial.
"Eight forty-eight in three...two...one..."
A beep from Lena's timer confirmed, and the girls turned to their communication devices. They checked them thoroughly and then pulled out their respective guns. Yulia had done a superb job cleaning and polishing them, and Lena found to her surprise that the handling felt easier and more natural. She glanced at the dark girl in surprise, and Yulia responded with a happy smile. "I used a special static-free cloth and a non-sticky wax. You should find the feel is less clingy and a bit easier to aim properly. I also loaded it with slightly heavier bullets, so the weight distribution is more even." She shrugged, suddenly worried. "I...I hope you don't mind; I know that we...I mean Assassins are very - um - particular about...I mean I would, I would be but I don't want to assume..." she lapsed into silence and looked pathetically at Lena, who continued to play with her gun.
"It feels ok," she commented brusquely, causing Yulia to breathe a sigh of relief. "Just ask next time. I'm gonna go dry my hair before I tie it up. Fit the ni-glo goggles to your face while I'm doing that; they're in the suitcase."
Yulia found them quickly - her very own pair of extremely hi-tech night vision glasses. They weren't as exciting as those in the movies, but as Lena had commented, they were just about cool enough to pass. They were mounted on a lightweight aluminium frame that Yulia slotted into place around her head, sliding the tiny metal clips tighter to give the perfect fit. Both eyes were covered by the mono-vision goggles, which were surprisingly light and unobstructive. She stared at her hands through them, and then at the hotel room. In the light everything was a bright green, but by fiddling with one of the tiny buttons she was able to dim the goggles.
By this time Lena was back, tying her silky blonde curls up into a high ponytail as she made sure their steel-woven black gloves were by the door.
"We ready?"
Yulia nodded at her and picked up the binoculars for a last look at James Donahue.
The man was sitting at his desk, a sheaf of papers spread out in front of him. He sat back and pinched the bridge of his nose, stifling a yawn and rubbing his tired eyes. Quickly he glanced at his watch and then at the clock on the wall, and then Yulia suddenly turned around, hissing, "Lena! The lights! Quickly!"
On reflex the blonde smacked the light switch with the back of her hand, plunging the room into darkness. Without words she joined Yulia at the window, eyes wide. She'd never heard the younger girl speak in that tone of voice, but it felt almost as even if she'd wanted to disobey, her body would have acted of its own accord. There had been something extremely confident and powerful in that moment, and Lena shivered to remember it.
She distracted herself by asking the reason for Yulia's sudden outburst.
Wordlessly the younger girl handed her the binoculars, and Lena put them to her eyes before inhaling suddenly.
James Donahue stood at his window, staring right at them.

"Shit."
The girls sat side-by-side on the bed, shocked.
"There's no way! ...Is there?" For once Lena was less than confident. Suddenly she shook herself and wiped her forehead.
"It was nothing, just chance. He saw a silhouette in a far window and looked at it, nothing new there. So are we going or what?"
In her haste Lena had forgotten her own rule - always go over the plan.
Yulia glanced at the little laptop on the desk, then at her.

Fifty minutes later, the two Assassins were standing outside the brightly lit headquarters of the Maxman Corporation.
They stood side by side, looking up at the building. Lena's eyes were narrowed and prepared, Yulia's were shining with excitement.
"Here we go," she whispered, causing Lena to hide a smile.
"Let the games begin," the latter returned, and in the distance the city clocks chimed ten.
____

[denial]

By: tatufreak

Part Three Chapter Two, Part Three

Banner: http://img13.photobucket.com/albums/...freak/P3c2.jpg

Lena glanced left and right before crouching at a grille beyond the brightly-lit reception area. Sliding a screwdriver from her belt, she quickly undid the bolts and slid them into her pocket for later replacement. Very carefully she removed the covering and laid it flat on the ground, slipping into the shaft without a sound. Once she was in she turned to pull the grille up against the opening behind her, and then she paused for a moment. Detaching her ni-glo's from her belt, she slipped them onto her head and adjusted the brightness so that the shafts appeared in front of her. Green-lit corridors stretched away in every direction - it was imperative that she took the right one. Closing her blue eyes, she saw the carefully memorised map and traced her position on it. Then her eyelids flew open as she began to crawl silently onwards.

Yulia swung herself up hand over hand. She grunted with the effort, but scaled the vertical scaffolds like a sailor. Quickly she made her way up and onto the first floor fire escape, careful not to be seen or heard. Below her feet a security guard emerged, patrolling the grounds and carrying a Uzi.
Yulia paid him no attention, quickly making a dog-check before turning her face upwards. She scanned the side of the building above her, eyes lingering on a large flagpole extending from the second storey.
Now she snapped back into action, climbing up to balance on the handrail of the fire escape. Carefully she reached up and jumped to catch the base of the next exit, grunting as she pulled herself up and onto the scaffold platform.
"Only twenty-three more to go..."

Lena had reached a fork in her shaft. Her forehead wrinkled as she contemplated it, trying hard to remember the map. Left or right?
Finally she decided to turn left, crawling until she met a large propeller. It turned with a dull throb, cooling her sweaty forehead.
"Damn."

Yulia was scaling the fifth floor. She had run into a spot of trouble regarding a loose rail, but her lightning-quick reflexes had saved her - not for the first time either. Now she was just about to pass the fire exit when a sudden movement made her duck into the shadows. A security guard emerged into the lighting, headed straight for the door.
Yulia quietly reached up for the base of the sixth floor fire exit, wrapping her hands around the strong horizontal supports. She carefully lifted herself up and flattened herself against it, muscles shaking from the effort.
The exit creaked open as the man looked out. He half-closed it behind him as he stepped out, walking towards the railings as he leaned over to look at the scaffolds below him. After a cursory check, he lifted his walkie-talkie to his mouth and pressed the talk button.
"Fred, there's no one on the exits. False alarm. Must be the other-floor alerts malfunctioning again."
There was a pause, and Yulia clamped her eyes shut with the effort of remaining pulled up to the base of the sixth story escape.
I can't hold on much longer!
The radio crackled a response.
"If they're malfunctioning, guess I'll turn 'em off for the night. We'll get the engineers in to look at them tomorrow. Thanks Bob."
The guard opened the door and disappeared back inside. Yulia counted to ten before letting her feet drop. She swung them up behind her onto the sixth floor, hooking them against the railings. Then it was a simple matter of a sit-up to complete the motion, leaving her on the next fire escape.
"Why weren't we told about an alarm?" she mused, annoyed.

A few minutes later, Lena finally reached her intersection, taking it quickly as she raced against time. She turned a corner, then another. Finally the shaft reached a dead-end, and Lena grunted in frustration. She shut her eyes tightly and tried to remember...ah yes.
Quickly she braced herself and kicked the shaft end wall, hard. It buckled and folded away. Lena pushed her way past it, into a separate passage.
Suddenly she pulled up short as she found herself face to face with the heart of the colossal building - the electrical centre shaft.
The entrance was through a large round screw door at her feet. Quickly she spun the wheel and lifted the hatch, descending the interior ladder before closing it behind her. She found herself in a tiny room, about five feet by six. In the centre was a large, padded chair and a ring of surrounding computers.
"Hmm...this I like," she commented, but decided not to take the seat. Instinct told her it would probably not be such a good idea.
Now she crouched below one of the larger computer terminals, supported by a rack on the wall. Quickly she unstrapped a wire from her belt and plugged one end of it into her laptop, which she pulled from a bag on her back.
With the other end of the cable in one hand, she got onto her knees and looked at the back of the computer above her head.
"Now where does this go?"

Yulia was hanging off the rail of the thirteenth floor when she saw the lights in the building flicker slightly.
Something's wrong.
She yanked herself over and hurled her back against the wall, checking the doorway while lifting her right wrist to her mouth.
"Ta! Ta, what just happened?" At first she heard nothing, but then the voice of her partner came through, sounding extremely pissed off.
"Power surge, my laptop's fried. I can still get through on one of theirs, but we'll have to keep it tight to avoid complications. Where are you?"
"Halfway."
"Got it. Speed it up."
Yulia switched her device off and continued climbing, putting the new problem aside for a brief second.

Meanwhile, Lena was now attempting to hack into the building mainframe using their own computer. The client had provided a password, but somehow she didn't quite trust them. Quickly she wrote her own and tapped through the firewall, closing her eyes.
A sudden beep made her open them as a little message flashed up, outlined in red. A few lines of code were added, and Lena quickly and furiously countered with her keyboard. She typed fast, disregarding normal protocols.
A few seconds later the message disappeared and the operating system opened up in front of her eyes.
"That's gotta be the dirtiest damn hack I've ever done," she smiled, humourlessly. "Now let's get down to business."

It was time. Yulia pulled herself onto the twenty-sixth floor fire escape, arms aching and sweat pouring down her forehead. She placed her ni-glo's over her eyes and flicked them on before checking the hallway for intruders. There were none, so she carefully let herself into the building, grateful that the fire escape alarms had been turned off. After backing down a few corridors she arrived at her target, a corner office with a grate below the desk. She pulled a key from her belt and slid it into the door handle, twisting it to let herself in. Now she turned her device back on.
"Ta, I'm in position."

The call came just as Lena accessed the mainframe.
With a smile she entered a command and hit the enter button. A second later the little room was plunged into darkness, as was the rest of the building. The row of computer monitors went dark, and through her ni-glo's Lena could see that the power was completely off - even the backup generators were offline.
Suddenly the hatch above her head flew open. A scrawny men half descended the ladder, a torch in one hand. He flashed it at the chair hurriedly, checking for any signs of tampering. When he saw none he climbed the ladder again, disappearing out of sight.
Lena waited until her heart rate returned to normal before smiling at her insight.

An electric thrill passed through Yulia as the lights flickered, then cut out completely. It was time.
She lifted the grille below the desk and slipped into the shaft below, closing it behind her. She dropped noiselessly and landed on all fours like a cat. She had no problem remembering the route; her photographic memory led her unfalteringly.
Eventually she reached the grille in the shaft floor that led downwards into the office of James Donahue.
Closing her eyes, Yulia breathed in. Right now, Lena would be making her way out of the building many floors below. In the mean time, there was a living, breathing man below her feet that she must concentrate on killing.
It was up to her, now.
Yulia wrenched her ni-glo goggles off and stuck them into her belt. She didn't need them.
She balanced over the grille on four points, staring down below her. The room was dark, and there was the sound of a man breathing heavily. She knew that James Donahue was waiting for the lights to come back on, patient but annoyed.
Here we go!
Yulia jammed one knee into the grille, pushing down with her other foot and forcing the cover from its bolts. As it fell and clattered onto the office floor below, she gripped the edge of the opening, swung herself down into mid-air, and then nearly fell as with a low throb the office lights came on brightly.
Twenty five floors below, Lena stared up at the building in rising horror. The power! The power was back on! But...how?
She closed her eyes and buried her face in her hands, ice settling around her heart.
They knew we were coming...they knew.
Suddenly her eyes flew open and she stared upwards in utter terror, uttering one word in a strangled half-sob.
"Yulia!"
In the office, the dark-haired girl stared as everything seemed to slow down. The CEO was standing at his desk, a gun levelled straight at her. Three armed men stood beyond him, Uzis raised. Bullets began to fly through the air towards Yulia, and without thinking she turned a flip in the air, throwing herself forwards towards Donahue.
The amateur gun-handler dropped his weapon in surprise as the girl landed almost in his arms. A little hand jerked out and caught his belt buckle, and before he or his guards could respond he was yanked through the air as the girl began another flip.
The man spiralled through the air gracelessly, towed by the ballistic actions of the dark-haired Assassin. They reached the windows, and without thinking one of the guards opened fire with a barrage of bullets before the screams of his superior sank in. The shots riddled Donahue's body and made several shatterpoints in the glass beyond him.
As the guards threw down their weapons in horror, a girl emerged from the other side of their boss's bloody corpse. She faced them as she gathered her momentum for her final flip, and in that brief instance her sad, dark eyes searched and understood the three horrified men. Then she was gone - framed for an instant against the huge glass windows and the stormy, heavy sky.
The next moment her back smashed through the glass and she fell towards the earth, instinct causing her to twist as she plummeted.
This is it, Yulia Volkova. The thought flashed through her mind like white-hot lightning. She quieted herself for the final moment, her mind growing strangely clear. She was ready to go. Below her she suddenly spotted Lena, standing far away on the street pavement. Her eyes were terrified and wide, and held something Yulia didn't expect - fear. Fear not for herself, but for the fragile little girl plummeting towards certain death so, so fast.
In that moment, the girls connected. A bond formed that blazed into both of them, something that couldn't and mustn't be broken.
It gave Yulia the will to live for that one instant, and it was just enough.
Her arms snaked out into the darkness and caught the second storey flagpole that she had noticed earlier. As she slammed to a muscle-wrenching halt, she closed her eyes and let her body twist into a natural curve, flipping up and over the pole to exhaust the murderous momentum of the fall.
She dropped the last twelve feet and rolled as she hit the ground, rising to her feet almost as she touched. Then she was away, running like the wind.
She tore around the block, cut through a riddle of passages and emerged at the abandoned carpark, twenty-two seconds before deadline.
At first she thought she was alone - that Lena had deserted her. Had she been set up all the time? No, she couldn't believe that - she wouldn't. As she turned a movement caught her eye, and as her watched beeped the final count, Lena stepped out of the shadows. The two girls approached each other wordlessly, stared into each others' eyes for just a moment, and then the blonde suddenly wrapped her arms around Yulia's little body. The latter slowly reciprocated the hug, and they stood together for a long time under the streetlights, aware of nothing else.
"I thought you..." Lena began to choke back a sob of mingled relief and fear. "I thought you would..."
Yulia reached up and wrapped her curls around her little fingers, comforting the older girl.
"It doesn't matter...shhh...it's ok now."
"But I should have realised it was a set-up..."
"You had no way of knowing. They were very good."
"It must have been the relatives of a previous target..."
"Nevertheless, we completed their mission, and they have to pay us, don't they?"
Lena gave a watery smile. "Yeah..."
The irony of the situation was not lost on her - how the older, sophisticated Parisian socialite was clinging desperately to the comfort of the young, troubled amnesiac.
But for once in her life, it didn't matter. She'd realised how close she had come to losing the younger girl, and it had terrified her. Tomorrow she would once again become a cruel, heartless antagonist - but for now she could cry, and she did.
Tears ran down TaTu's faces as they held each other, and their bond very slowly began to heal both of their bruised and bloodied souls.
A passing young man stopped and sneered at them, displaying a mouthful of gold teeth as he shouted, "Lesbians! Get off the streets!"
As one, Yulia and Lena quietly drew each others' guns from each others' belts. They didn't have to look as they aimed, still holding each other with one arm.
Two identical shots rang out in the night, and then all was still.
In the distance, wailing police sirens were drowned out by the clock striking eleven.

The heavy skies roared.

It began to rain.

[denial]

By: tatufreak

And here it is, folks! First guest written chapter by the fabulous Vicky7.
All I can say is - Enjoy. :thumbsup:

Vicky7 - Clash

Banner: http://img13.photobucket.com/albums/...reak/Clash.jpg

Yulia yawned and stretched the springs on her makeshift bed straining as she moved bidding her good morning, the loud tapping on the keys of a laptop signifying that Lena was already up and about. She ran her hands over her face wiping the sleep from the corner of her eyes and swung her legs out of bed. Did they have a new client?

Yulia stumbled sleepily out into the kitchen where Lena was sat at her laptop sipping slowly on a glass of orange juice occasionally taking delicate bites of her slice of toast. Without saying a word Yulia stood behind her noting the way her fine features were illuminated perfectly by the light radiating from the laptop’s screen.

“What time is it?” Yulia asked breaking the silence.

“Nine O’clock.” Lena replied her eyes never leaving the screen. “You have a client.”

Yulia’s eyes widened in surprise “I have a client?”

“Yes. This evening. It’s an easy hit. You can do it alone.” Lena said her eyes meeting Yulia’s in a steely gaze.

“But we always go together.” Yulia answered in a small voice.

Lena remained collected her voice emotionless. “Not this time. Just you.”

“But why aren’t you coming?”

“It’s simple. It’s a test. All you need is your gun and one bullet to the head. What’s so hard about that?”

“Nothing I suppose.” Yulia shrugged her shoulders. “If you want me to go alone I will.”

“Good.” Lena said turning back to the laptop and pointing at the screen. “Now here’s the brief. The target is a man called Julien Madorre, he's a works for Biotech International here in Paris.”

Yulia studied the picture of the smiling middle-aged man on the screen. “Why do they want him dead?”

“It doesn’t say, all I know is that he’s rumoured to have connections with Cypric Morning some secret society in Albany.”

“So what do I have to do?”

“He’s working late tonight, all you have to do is enter the building, locate his office, which is on the fourth floor, room 4.25 and then take him out.” Lena smiled thinly at the simplicity of her task.

“Do they have security?”

“Yes and that’s where I come in. I have a plan…”
Yulia stood against the hard stonewall pushing her back hard against it as she studied the two security guards chatting and laughing together. She was ready to enter the building and it was time for Lena to execute her part of the plan.

Yulia held her pager firmly in the sweaty palm of her hand and typed the word ‘go’ before sending it to Lena’s phone. Now she just had to watch and wait.

“There a man on the top floor…I think he’s about to jump…” The guard dropped the phone and beckoned his colleague to follow him as he bounded into the lift in a blind panic.

Lena had successfully facilitated her entrance Yulia thought as she prepared herself for the kill her heartbeat thumped in her ears as the exhilaration got the better of her. This was almost too easy for her…

She crept inside being careful not to let the heavy door slam shut on its hinges to alert anyone to her presence. Having spent the day memorising the layout of the office block she was aware where every security camera was and so she deftly took the stairs two at a time adrenaline pumping through her veins.

Upon reaching the fourth floor she soon located room 4.25 and found that it was locked. Taking a quick look around she forced the door open with ease and as she entered she could see a man’s head poking over the top of a large leather chair in the corner of the room, the smell of Cuban cigars infusing the air, smoke rings forming from behind the chair. Julien Madorre.

She covered the distance between them stealthily until she was close enough to hear his slow steady breathing, her small figure casting a large shadow across the room. She swiftly pulled her gun out from her pocket and was about to spin the man around in his chair. However, she didn’t have the time, her plan foiled as the chair rotated of its own accord and Julien smiled that all knowing smile as he nodded to someone behind her.

Gun shots rained down upon her forcing her to dive down on to the floor and roll across it to avoid being hit.

“Where did she go?” she heard one of the guards say distracting her attention. She was caught unaware as cold steel ripped through her skin forcing her to drop her gun as her arm went numb and limp. Her assailant grinned sinisterly as he continued to wield the knife at her, which she was successfully able to dodge.

As he swung the knife at her again the sharp blade cut the air menacingly just in front of her face. Yulia instinctively reached out for the knife grabbing the guard’s wrist and twisting the knife around in his hand and slashing his throat wide open from ear to ear, his body crumpling to the floor as he choked on his last breathes.

Seeing another guard preparing to attack her Yulia flung herself to the floor once more to retrieve her gun. She adroitly pulled the trigger just in time before he was able to take aim and fire at her with his own weapon. His body as in slow motion flew through the air his body hitting the ground with a thud as the bullet penetrated his skull and lodged into his brain.

Yulia readjusted herself looking around to find the leather chair empty. Julien Madorre had gone…

***

“What the hell happened?” Lena questioned as Yulia scampered breathlessly in through the front door her large dark eyes filled with a distress beyond their usual sadness.

“I don’t know, it just went wrong…” Her voice trailed off painfully.

“And the target?”

Yulia eyed Lena warily and bit her bottom lip nervously. “He escaped.”

“WHAT?”

“I’m so sorry Lena.”

“It was the easiest job I could have possibly given you, I even helped you and you go and mess it up! This is unbelievable!” Lena said roughly pushing Yulia back but halting her aggression as she was startled to see her hand was covered in blood, Yulia’s blood. “You’re injured…”

“Yes.” Yulia said simply hanging her head in shame while clutching a hand to her bloodied arm.

“Let me see.” Lena grabbed her arm forcibly to survey the wound making Yulia flinch as a sharp pain shot up her arm. “Hold still.” Lena demanded through gritted teeth a combination of frustration and fear threatening her customary cool exterior. “It’s a deep wound I’m…gonna have to deal with it now.”

“What about the hospital?”

“There’s no time” Lena said searching frantically around for the first aid kit and returning to cleanse the large gaping gash on Yulia’s arm. “Does that hurt?” she asked purposely pressing down hard on the wound.

Yulia shook her head. Although the pain was making her head spin she wasn’t prepared to show Lena she had any weaknesses she was desperate for her approval. “No” she lied.

“Well I damn well wish it did.” Lena said maliciously digging her nails into her arm forcing tears to well up in Yulia’s eyes as she averted them sadly from Lena’s gaze. She had let her down; there was nothing she could say to make it right; she deserved to be punished.

Lena efficiently stitched up Yulia’s arm holding it steady in her lap absorbed in the task at hand. As she finished she shoved hers arm away and stood up. “Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got to get ready for bed. One of us needs to be up early to deal with the mess you have made.”

“Look I’m sorry.” Yulia pleaded with sad eyes as Lena turned her back on her and left the room.

Lena slammed the bathroom door shut behind her and leaned heavily against it suppressing a long shaky breathe in a vain attempt to calm down. She ran her hands over her face inadvertently smearing it with blood, the smell tormenting her nostrils making her feel sick to her stomach.

She clambered over to the sink and bent her head over it a wave of sickness overwhelming her as she began to heave. Her hands gripped the basin tight, her knuckles white as beads of sweat formed on her forehead. Her legs gave way from under her and she fell to her knees, her eyes pricking with unshed tears as she studied Yulia’s blood on her shaking hands.

This is all your fault. You’re so selfish. Why did you do it? What do you have to prove?

She did as you asked. You sent her there alone. You’re sorry now aren’t you?

It’s hurts doesn’t it?

The blood, it didn’t seem like it was ever going to stop… Lena sighed as she raked her hands through her blonde mane. Why is it the more I push her away the more I think about her?

***

As Lena lay in bed that night she stared up at the ceiling afraid to go to sleep. She was too shaken, what had happened tonight had taken her by surprise. She hadn’t expected to feel this way, Yulia wasn’t supposed to mean anything to her so why did it upset her so much to see her hurt?

Her thoughts tormenting her into exhaustion Lena fell asleep…

There were flashes… the sound of footsteps echoing…getting louder…and louder… familiar…the smell…it was nauseating… blood…blood…blood…seeping through a black and yellow tiled floor…and then…

“Oh god.” Lena cried out as she woke up with a start feeling a heavy weight on her shoulder looking around to find Yulia sleeping peacefully next to her.

She pushed her off wanting as much distance between them as possible. She was meant to be alone; to have any form of attachment to another human being would make her weak, she would not allow it. She was Lena Katina, an ice maiden, a consummate professional and Yulia’s boss and she would make her pay for making such a big mistake tonight…

***
“GET UP.” Yulia coughed violently as cold water rained down upon her and looked up from where she was lying to see Lena looking at her with contempt. “Why are you in my bed?”

“You were having a nightmare. You sounded so upset.” Yulia defended herself shaking the excess water from her body. “ I just wanted to be there to comfort you.”

“I don’t need comfort.” Lena snarled. “I need you to learn how to do your job properly.”

“I think it was a set up, they were expecting me.”

“They?”

“Yes. Julien and two guards.”

Lena smiled evilly. “Well Julien wasn’t expecting me this morning.”

“You killed him?”

“Yes.” Lena nodded. “I did my part of the job properly, you didn’t, so now it’s time for you to be punished.” She snatched a handful of Yulia’s short messy hair and dragged her out of the bed and on to the floor. “Do you know what happens to people who let me down?”

“No.” Yulia said softly preparing herself to find out.

“They suffer.” Lena tugged hard on Yulia’s hair making her gasp in pain as she pulled her head back. “And then they suffer some more.” She said grabbing Yulia’s wounded arm and twisting it behind her back.

“And some more.” She released Yulia’s arm and threw her to the floor before punching her in the face. “And some more.”

Blood began to trickle out of the corner of Yulia’s mouth as she watched Lena stood over her, her beautiful face twisted hideously with anger and hate. “Are you just going to lie there and take it?” Lena spat vehemently clenching her fists. “Come on what are you waiting for, why don’t you try and hurt me?”

Yulia meekly raised her eyes to meet Lena’s her voice low and husky. “I could never hurt you…”

Lena recoiled as if Yulia had struck her turning her back to her and staring out of the window at the cloudless Parisian sky consumed with guilt. She was nothing but a bully. “You couldn’t hurt me if you tried.” The truth was they both knew she could, there was no doubt.