xp_logs | Operation: A Hammer To Fall - Suspicion and Concerns (Reply)

Topaz has a crisis of conscience — and suspicions are born. London Time: Late Afternoon

The woods weren't really that, more just a stand of trees off a patch of waste ground, but it was cover, for now. Taboo and Topaz crouched in the shadows, catching their breaths. Taboo's fists were clenched and the normal warm brown of his eyes had been suffused with black, tendrils of darkness spreading out into the whites. "They should be dead by now," he growled under his breath.

Topaz, rather uncharacteristically, didn't hear Luca right away. She was staring at the ground, one hand reached as her fingers played with the stem of leaf, and she thought about the fight. Even when she did register what he'd said, she didn't look up, just said, "One of them might be." Oh, that had been unpleasant. Albert's anguish was still echoing in the back of her head as he watched his brother be barreled down by hisattack. An attack that should have hit Luca, that should have been impossible for him to dodge...and yet he had.

"One isn't good enough. I want them all." It came out almost as a snarl as Taboo whirled around to look at the girl. "Your powers were supposed to make this easy, but we've barely managed to get away with our lives. You're not holding back, are you, girl?"

Finally, the whirlwind of anger registered in Topaz's head, and she looked up quickly to meet Luca's - Taboo's - eyes. "Of course not," she snapped back. "What exactly would I have to gain by holding back? Perhaps you haven't noticed, but they're trying to kill me, too."

"Then why are we the ones running like scared rabbits? They should be running from us. We have more than enough power to deal with them." Taboo ground his teeth, barely containing his frustration.

"I don't know," Topaz replied, struggling to keep her own frustration down. She didn't know, that was the problem. She didn't know what was wrong with her magic, why it was suddenly choosing when it wanted to work. "Maybe...maybe it's a sign," she said after a moment. "Maybe we're not supposed to do this after all."

He turned on her then. "Not supposed to? After what they did? THEY KILLED YOUR MOTHER!"

The yell startled Topaz enough that she actually jerked back. Luca had never raised his voice to her before. "I know," she shot back, her own voice shaking with the effort of keeping it under control. "Even if you didn't feel the need to remind me every five minutes I would still know!" And yelling now.

"Then you should understand! They have to die. Every last one of them," Taboo retorted. "You need to help me, Topaz. I need your power in this. All of it."

"I'm giving you everything I have," she gritted out angrily. How could he think she was holding back? It was insulting. It almost hurt. It would have hurt if she let it.

"Not if you're thinking that our cause isn't just. We are doing what we are supposed to do. We can't let our sympathies get the better of us." Cold blank eyes stared into hers. "We've taken down one. We need the rest."

Topaz just stared back, meeting Taboo's gaze. "I have no sympathy for them," she said coldly. She had to force herself to ignore the feelings radiating off of him. Even at his worst, immediately following Alice's death, she had never felt emotions like this. Not from him.
It was...disturbing.

He held her gaze, seeming to look right through her. Then he nodded. "Good," he said shortly. "Because that won't be your only kill tonight."

"Fine." Just as shortly. Topaz didn't look away - refused to, really. Not until she identified what she saw in that gaze. If eyes were really windows into one's soul...

Then Taboo's soul was utterly and completely empty.