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xp_logsIn his 'coma', Nathan dreams, but discovers that he's not alone.
He was creeping across the rain-wet roof of that bioweapons facility, Dawn at his side as they made for the skylight. Except Dom was already there, setting up the droplines as she waited for them, and that was wrong... wasn't it? Dom hadn't been in China. He opened his mouth to say something to her as they approached, but then everything was in fast forward and they were inside the building, taking cover behind an overturned lab table, listening to the screams over the coms as the rest of their team was taken out. Some bright boy among the security forces who had them pinned down had the bright idea to lob a grenade in their direction, and even as he contained the explosion, he knew he was going to drop the TK shield too quickly, that the virus would be airborne, in the haze, and he would be dooming Dawn and himself. But he did it anyway, distracted by a flash of red hair through the smoke...
But then he was somewhere else. Hong Kong, one of the pit-fighting venues, and he was looking down at a scrawny, fierce-eyed teenager fighting two men twice her size with nothing but a knife and her bare hands as the crowd chanted "Domino! Domino!". He turned to Bridge to say something, but it was Moira sitting in the seat next to him, looking so disturbed by where she was that he stopped, the angry words he should have spoken to G.W. catching in his throat...
And then he was running and shooting under a blazing sun, the sand so hot beneath his feet that he could feel it through his boots. A jeep was coming towards him, bouncing over the dunes, and he lashed out with his mind, sending it and the several men inside flying. The little girl he had in one arm screamed and buried her face against his neck, but he kept running, focusing on the job rather than on her terrified thoughts as they slammed against his shields like frantic birds against a window. She was a package he had been paid to retrieve, that was all, he tried to convince himself. He would get her to the helicopter and they would go, and she would get to go home. But the woman reaching out to them to pull them aboard as they reached the helicopter wasn't Dom, or Mina. Not even Lien, although this had been six months before Lien had joined the Pack so that wouldn't have made sense either. It was Moira, smiling at him as he took her hands...
The bar, that nameless bar that served the best alcohol in Jakarta, and the place was full of the Pack and the Harriers, the Harriers as they had been before Shaw had gotten half of them killed. Tomas was sitting across the table from him and grinning rakishly, and Nathan looked up and smiled as Leanna came over with a tray of beers. Leanna who had died under torture as her husband had watched, and Nathan looked back at Tomas, savoring the real happiness in his friend's eyes, the joy that hadn't been there since everything had gone to hell for him in a prison in Peru. And Moira leaned forward beside him, smiling, laying her hand over his...
But the warmth and the smiling faces were gone, suddenly, and he was seven years old and alone, shivering in the Alaskan night as he stumbled through the woods, trying not to cry and hoping desperately that he was headed in the right direction. If he didn't make it back to the commune Mother and Father would be angry. They would say he was weak, and everyone knew what happened to the weak. He stumbled, falling face-first into the snow, and the sob that slipped out made him angry. Struggling back to his feet, his feet he couldn't seem to feel anymore, he started to stagger forward again. And his heart lightened a little as he saw that Moira was there, waving to him through the trees, beckoning him onwards...
But then he was somewhere else. Again.
He was creeping across the rain-wet roof of that bioweapons facility, Dawn at his side as they made for the skylight. Except Dom was already there, setting up the droplines as she waited for them, and that was wrong... wasn't it? Dom hadn't been in China. He opened his mouth to say something to her as they approached, but then everything was in fast forward and they were inside the building, taking cover behind an overturned lab table, listening to the screams over the coms as the rest of their team was taken out. Some bright boy among the security forces who had them pinned down had the bright idea to lob a grenade in their direction, and even as he contained the explosion, he knew he was going to drop the TK shield too quickly, that the virus would be airborne, in the haze, and he would be dooming Dawn and himself. But he did it anyway, distracted by a flash of red hair through the smoke...
But then he was somewhere else. Hong Kong, one of the pit-fighting venues, and he was looking down at a scrawny, fierce-eyed teenager fighting two men twice her size with nothing but a knife and her bare hands as the crowd chanted "Domino! Domino!". He turned to Bridge to say something, but it was Moira sitting in the seat next to him, looking so disturbed by where she was that he stopped, the angry words he should have spoken to G.W. catching in his throat...
And then he was running and shooting under a blazing sun, the sand so hot beneath his feet that he could feel it through his boots. A jeep was coming towards him, bouncing over the dunes, and he lashed out with his mind, sending it and the several men inside flying. The little girl he had in one arm screamed and buried her face against his neck, but he kept running, focusing on the job rather than on her terrified thoughts as they slammed against his shields like frantic birds against a window. She was a package he had been paid to retrieve, that was all, he tried to convince himself. He would get her to the helicopter and they would go, and she would get to go home. But the woman reaching out to them to pull them aboard as they reached the helicopter wasn't Dom, or Mina. Not even Lien, although this had been six months before Lien had joined the Pack so that wouldn't have made sense either. It was Moira, smiling at him as he took her hands...
The bar, that nameless bar that served the best alcohol in Jakarta, and the place was full of the Pack and the Harriers, the Harriers as they had been before Shaw had gotten half of them killed. Tomas was sitting across the table from him and grinning rakishly, and Nathan looked up and smiled as Leanna came over with a tray of beers. Leanna who had died under torture as her husband had watched, and Nathan looked back at Tomas, savoring the real happiness in his friend's eyes, the joy that hadn't been there since everything had gone to hell for him in a prison in Peru. And Moira leaned forward beside him, smiling, laying her hand over his...
But the warmth and the smiling faces were gone, suddenly, and he was seven years old and alone, shivering in the Alaskan night as he stumbled through the woods, trying not to cry and hoping desperately that he was headed in the right direction. If he didn't make it back to the commune Mother and Father would be angry. They would say he was weak, and everyone knew what happened to the weak. He stumbled, falling face-first into the snow, and the sob that slipped out made him angry. Struggling back to his feet, his feet he couldn't seem to feel anymore, he started to stagger forward again. And his heart lightened a little as he saw that Moira was there, waving to him through the trees, beckoning him onwards...
But then he was somewhere else. Again.
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