xp_logs | Operation: A Hammer To Fall

Topaz and Taboo have found a new place to hide, and discuss recent events - and some not-so-recent. London Time: 10:30 p.m.

Though she would never say it out-loud, Topaz was exhausted and frustrated. Her magic wasn't working the way it was supposed to, and she was buggered if she could figure out why. She needed to do something about it, though - she knew Luca was getting impatient with her faulty spells.

"What do we do now?" She asked, looking over at her father, who had been standing at the window since they'd gotten there. She knew he was unhappy about being back here, back in the place where Alice had died. But it was the only refuge they had left now, with their apartment destroyed. Thank god the house hadn't sold yet. Apparently a woman dying of "mysterious circumstances" in the kitchen wasn't a big seller.

He replied without turning around, his voice holding the cold flatness that Topaz had grown to associate with "Taboo". "We keep going. We stay alive. And when they aren't expecting it, we take the bastards down, all of them."

Because that's worked out so bloody well up to this point. Topaz bit down on that answer, though. She wasn't going to start a fight. They were still alive, after all. Probably wouldn't be for much longer, but she'd known that the moment they'd started this. So she just closed her eyes for a moment, not really wanting to have this conversation anyways.

At the lack of reply, Taboo turned from the window. Whatever he saw on Topaz' face made him frown. "Having doubts?" he asked rhetorically - it was plain to see she was. "Don't want to fight any more? Do I need to remind you why we're doing this?"

Topaz's eyes snapped open again, her expression turning hard as she focused on the man. "No, you don't need to remind me," she said coolly, pulling herself off the floor in one fluid motion and heading toward the kitchen. She hadn't been able to go in there for a month after Alice. Even now, a year later, she hesitated on the threshold, still seeing the room as it had been that day.

No. She didn't need to be reminded.

He pushed on, regardless, almost as if he had to remind some part of herself. "They took her from us. Your mother. My wife. They came in here and stole her life away. We owe it to her to avenge her death, to make sure these people pay for what they did. We can't rest until every last one of them is gone." His fists clenched and something dead and dark entered his eyes. "We'll make them pay."

Topaz leaned against the door frame, staring at the linoleum floor. Seeing Alice's body. And something heavy settled in her chest. "I know," she said quietly. She'd never questioned anything Luca had told her to do. She wasn't going to start now.

They just needed to end this.

"It'll be over soon," he said, voice gentling a little towards the old Luca. "And then we can disappear. Find somewhere else and start over. Would you like that?"

She clenched and unclenched her fists for a minute, turning Luca's words over in her head. Start over. That sounded...wonderful. Somewhere new, with new names, a new life. "That would be...nice," she finally said, her voice wavering a bit on the last word. It would be nice to finally be free of all this hurt. All these terrible memories.

It would be nice.

Dom stayed low as he followed the two to a house. Taking the opportunity to hide in a bush across the street from where they entered, Dom watched the building to make sure they weren't going anywhere before making contact with Adam letting him know he had found Taboo and Topaz.