knowthyexits | [Timeloop] Thread 2

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[Timeloop] Thread 2

Her hands still have blood on them.

The house is in one piece, the bomb in the Jeep was dismantled in time, and she has blood on her hands from Sarkissian's body and his henchman. She had been waiting for them. She had known they would be there and instead of letting them chain her up and beat John, she'd been waiting for them with a weapon and all the rage of a mother protecting her child.

And now, she has blood on her hands and she stares down at the stain, unable to process anything around her. Not John, not Derek, not even the men from the island who are impossibly there. She just can't...

She can't process this. Not yet. She's done a lot of things, but this is the first time she has blood on her hands from a direct kill. It's her first.

And it hadn't even been the machines.

She has human blood on her hands and she's not sure if she's done the right thing.

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Sarah swallowed the lump in her throat, feeling the heaviness. "It's okay," she says, hoarsely. "Cameron is outside. I disarmed the bomb before we came inside. She won't turn, not this time. I fixed things," she says unsurely, but she doesn't feel like she has.

"We're safe here for now. I know where we can go next, but we're expected there in a week."

Everything was a constant game of push-and-pull, arguing with Sarah on every point, every strategy, both of them certain of their own opinions and unconvinced of the other's. It was no way to fight a war, and if it came down to it, that would be their downfall. But they also had the potential to make a decent team, if only Sarah would listen to him.

"Correction: you can't stay here," he amended, gesturing at the body in the event that he wasn't being clear enough. She was already close enough to a breakdown as it was, and staying here would not help.

Edited 2011-01-03 16:55 (UTC)

She swallows a heavy lump in her throat and brushes a blood-stained hand over her forehead. "It's not the first person I've killed," she says, shaky but steady. "I...John was going to, if I didn't. It changed everything. It changed us." She's on her feet now, listening to Bruce, even if she's not sure she trusts him right now.

"That doesn't matter now," insisted Bryce, eyes darting once more to the bloodied corpse of their erstwhile enemy. "He's dead either way, and no matter which way you cut it, it would be imprudent to hang out here with the body. We either haul ass or take care of the remains, but standing around won't do us any good." Thrilling though it was to be thrust once more into this lifestyle, he was nothing if not cautious in so unfamiliar a territory, and the last thing he care to be was a sitting duck.

Sarah's eyes are clouded with something like doubt and she rubs at her wrists as she moves slightly, taking a deep breath and trying to put together a plan. "Derek can take care of the body and there's a house we can go to. It's the one we're meant to go to."

That they're meant to go there was debatable at the very least, but Bryce didn't object, not while he haf her convinced to move away at all. There was a good chance that where they were headed would not be the best of places, but that could be sorted out once they did arrive. Right now, priority was to get far from the crime scene; figuring the next move could wait until then.

"Let's go," he nodded at last.

She feels a threatening burn in her chest, like she's about to break down, but she ignores it and keeps going. She takes the armory into hand and nods, ready to listen to Bruce, even if it means he knows about her now. "We'll go," she says and draws open the door.

...only to discover the alleyway and the Mexican standoff that she had been facing just hours ago.

"No!" she rages. "No!"

This time, he was armed, gun cocked and raised ready before he could even comprehend what had happened.

On the whole, this entire experience had required a certain suspension of disbelief that Bryce had been prepared to accept, ignoring for the time being in favor of more time-sensitive matters. Matters such as staying alive. In moments like these, survival instinct took over, physical reaction coming long before thought process had any chance to catch up.

"You wanna explain to me what just happened?" He asked (demanded) of Sarah, her outrage hinting at some comprehension of the situation, which was more than he could personally hope for.

"I don't know what's going on," she snaps right back at him, drawing out her weapon in order to hold it steady on the same threat that they've just faced, that's right there in front of them, this not-Sarkissian that they've had to deal with. "Dammit, Bruce, I don't know what this is," she says, practically wild in her confusion.

"So what? We shoot first, ask questions later?" From the tone of his voice, it was evident that he didn't consider this as wildly ridiculous a plan as the words themselves might suggest. He knew now from firsthand experience how dangerous this situation could get, and they were at a disadvantage, with no way of knowing what had happened, let alone how or why.

She looks around and tries to put this all together so it makes sense in her mind, but it doesn't. "Yes," she bites out, hand on her gun and hating that they have to do this again. "John was supposed to kill Sarkissian and it changed him. I stopped that, I changed it, so why am I doing this again!"

Practical a man though he was, Bryce had to admit that the answer seemed clear enough, however unlikely. Fate and destiny held little water with him, he wasn't one who believed there was a reason for all things; if there was, he wouldn't have dedicated so much of his life to changing the world, to preventing bad men from doing bad things. But months and months spend on Tabula Rasa had a way of changing a man's perspective, his very belief system, and if they were indeed but pieces in another game being played, here, the island set the rules.

"What happens if you let him do it, this time?"

"Then I lose my son. Effectively," she says, trying to ignore the bite that comes with such a statement, the way that it hurts her to the core. Cromartie and Sarkissian and Riley. All these factors driving John away from her. "He's all I have."

It changed a person. Bryce Larkin was the last man to argue that killing changed a person, hardened him, but it didn't seem as thought they had choice. Still, although he didn't know much of John at all, he might argue that although the boy might not be the same, he would still be his mother's son. Sarah's influence was far from forgettable, and if anything, he would need that love to hold on to.

There was, however, something else they could try: "And if I do it?"

Her gaze turns critical and thoughtful at his suggestion and she thinks about it for a long moment. She sometimes scares herself because she knows it would be blood on Bruce's hands, but there's a part of her that so fervently wants it -- to take the culpability off of his own hands.

"Yes," she says, gets it out before she can think twice.

He both could not and would not pretend that it meant nothing, that it was easy, because it never was, not matter how simple spies made it look. That was their job, after all, to make the difficult seem effortless, the impossible possible. Perhaps there was a reason he was here, and that reason was to pull the trigger.

"Then we'll try it that way," he gave a firm nod, already determined. Better him than John, in the end.

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[Timeloop] Thread 2

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