Love Beyond Lies (closed)

[kizkiz]

His hands slackened and his knees gave out. He slumped to the floor before her, tilting his head up at her so he could see her one last time before she killed him. "Be quick at least. And goodbye my love. Thank you."

And before his love? His mirage? Before she could end him one way or another, the old lady was back. The matron of this place and perhaps of him? She reeked of the maternal like an archetype he was programmed to recognize and respond to. A kid never having known a mother's love would always crave it, wouldn't he?

Before those thoughts wormed too deep, he was there. Neal felt a heavy blanket of emotional stability wrap around him. Neal was centering, even if he wasn't centered. If he had been the compass spinning around wildly, this old man was his true north. How? Why? Neal had no idea. The man just was.

The old lady whisked her away. She left him, and he found himself scrambling towards his sling bag. The only thought resonating in his mind was to murder everyone that was between himself and her. She was his true north, not this old man. Lies within lies, right? What? He had no idea.

She was gone before he reached his bag, which left Neal with him. A compass warring between two true norths no longer had a war when only one direction pulled on it. He collapsed into a chair, his head crashing into the table. Pain blossomed from his forehead around his skull and radiated like a flower opening its pedals over and over again. No that was his head rising up and slamming back down into the table over and over again. He needed to stop that. Could he? Yes he could.

Neal held his head with both of his hands so his head would stop slamming itself into the table.

"Old man," Neal croaked in a parody of Clint Eastwood playing the Nameless Cowboy. "Let's palaver then."

Even as Neal talked his mind tucked away the words the old man had said. Who was Berkhardt? Who was Annabelle? Neal watched the man through blood streaming down from his forehead. He ignored the blood. His eyes had locked on the old man. His concentration was absolute. It was, after all, what they'd built him to do.

 

[Asa]

I am not surprised that you don't fully remember me junior. It has been a long time since I headed the operation.

Junior had to trigger something he always called his most arrogant hand picked agent that. A failsafe if he ever had to step in and redirect him. Daniel Wolf to most Director Wolf but to his hand picked agents simply Wolf. Annabelle his wife was always momma to those he trusted and the last two people he trusted outside of his wife were here with no memory or understanding of why they came here. Why they came home to momma.

 

[kizkiz]

"I am not surprised that you don't fully remember me junior. It has been a long time since I headed the operation." The old man's words were like the musty smell of books in an old library. It wasn't sweet or pretty, but they were heavy and majestic in a way that looking at each in visual word should have made them impossible to be so. More confusing riddles playing in his head.

"Junior..." Neal tasted that word. It didn't sound as patronizing as it should. More like how a son might feel comfort from being named after his father. Neal wouldn't know, not having a father he remembered, but he could imagine what that might be like. That's what it felt like now to him at least. "Your the big bad wolf. You huff and puff and blow people's houses down."

Something clicked in his head. He felt the pull of her again. "And you are keeping me from myself, why?"

 

[Asa]

Not at all junior. Just trying to repair two of my handpicked operatives those assholes that took over my organization have screwed up. I placed a glitch if you will in your programming and one in hers as well. A genetic code. And this place being home. Annabelle the owner... My wife and fellow operative. I don't know how much more I can say for you to fully remember and snap back to you Junior but time isn't always on our side after she wipes out people. You have tracked her creativity. Its what she did when we found her the first time. When you two became my hand picked operatives.

Wolf went to the desk and got a first aid kit. A picture rested in its lid when he opened it. Tala was maybe 19 and Annabelle had a little less grey hair. Neil and Wolf stood with them. Almost looking like a family as he patched him up.

Who is guy traveling with you?

 

[kizkiz]

Neal chewed over what the old man said. Each time the old man said 'Junior', Neal felt a comforting warmth swell in his heart. What the man said made sense. It clicked with half-remembered things swimming in the recesses of his mind. But there were still unanswered questions.

"So you made me? Put things in my genetic code?" He went quiet. "And I'm supposed to trust you? I feel it in my heart, but that's only one of the personalities in my head. There are others. I really don't like being separated from Tala. It makes me want to kill you for separating me from her."

 

[Asa]

He was reaching him next step might just help more.

Let momma help her. If anyone can bring our real Tala back its momma... You know that Junior. Look at the picture. Tala was what 19 when we found her. Running the streets of Morocco as a hired gun. You and momma talked me into recruiting her. Bernhardt was irate that I had another hand picked operative much less that she passed all the boards tests with ease and would only answer to momma or me. You were the same way. You remember when we found you? The real you Neil

 

[kizkiz]

"There is no real Neal." He drooped in the seat. "I'm just a bunch of pieces, Lego blocks, that can be configured to accomplish your goals." Neal glanced at the sling sack, but instead scooped up the newspaper and pencil he'd been doodling on. He picked it up and showed the old man. "Only she can make me into something real. I don't care what I was before. I only care about what I will become. Maybe a butterfly if I'm lucky." He shrugged. "I'll take a moth at this point."

 

[Asa]

When you two are together you are the real people I found... Till Berkhardt...

Wolf seemed to drip venom thinking of how the board separated them and clearly warped Tala's mind.

I want him dead Neil... He has to pay for what he has done to our Tala.

Momma's voice calls out as she walks down the hall.

She is resting

 

[kizkiz]

"When you two are together you are the real people I found... Till Berkhardt..." The old man --Wolf, was that his name? -- seemed to drip venom when he spat the world 'Berkhardt'.

Maybe the old man really did care. Or he was a better actor than Neal. Neal was tired though and he didn't really care. As long as old man Wolf brought him back to Tala. That's all that mattered.

"I want him dead Neal... He has to pay for what he has done to our Tala."

The old women's voice -- was she really called 'Momma?' -- called out as she walked down the hall. "She is resting."

Neal nodded. He had to believe they were telling the truth, because if Tala wasn't resting then she was dead. If she was dead, he'd kill both of these mother fucking people and then himself. Better to believe that right now. He wanted to stay happy, genuinely happy for as long as possible.

"Sure, I'll kill Berkhardt. I just need Tala back in my arms first."

 

[Asa]

That vermin son of a bitch had our Tala thinking her real self was just a cover and some line towing little perfect soldier of his the real person.

Momma then walked into the kitchen and the sounds of rage fueled chicken prepping rang out from kitchen. She had ommited something. Momma did that to protect them. Neal and Tala were her kids since she couldn't have any and Tala was the youngest even if she was the most lethal.

So should we see what Momma isn't telling us or just wait her out Junior?

Wolf looked toward the kitchen almost feeling sorry for the poor dead chickens.

 

[kizkiz]

"Sure..." Neal said, thinking through the implications of the man's words. "Do you think she'll respond to water boarding? I'd hate to leave any permanent disfigurements. She seems like a nice enough lady."

Neal was a struggling with trust these people, despite all the strong emotional feelings he felt. Why would this lady keep stuff from them? Why would the old man turn on his wife so readily? How could Tala have only been inducted into this life so late? He'd assumed they were born this way, constructed and programmed like an organic robot. It was hard for him to reconcile all these irreconcilable details.

 

[Asa]

Not like that you bonehead. Momma always told you and Tala more information she worries too much about upsetting me since I can't stop the board anymore.

Wolf growled.

You and Tala could always tell when to just wait her out or try to get her to talk to one of you. Then again Tala could get us all to talk.

 

[kizkiz]

"Oh..." Neal said, "Sure." He shrugged and snatched up his sling bag, tossing it across his back without missing a step. "I need to know more. Your welcome to come, if it won't worry you too much."

Neal didn't pause though as he moved into the kitchen.

 

[Asa]

Maybe talking to momma will bring our Neal fully back. He can't be fractured like that and deal with Tala. Wolf thought as he watched him walk into the kitchen. He moved closer to the door but did not enter. Momma had a way with reaching them that he envied. Maybe it had to do with how maternal she was over them and how on their own they had begun calling her momma.

The clever flew up and down with a rage only a momma bear could know when one of her cubs was hurt. Momma didn't see the chickens on the cutting board before her she had prepared chicken like this since she was old enough to swing a knife. She saw Berkhardt with every slam of the clever.

 

[kizkiz]

"Tell me," Neal said, leaning against the fridge watching momma work on those chickens with berserker frenzy. Neal wasn't entirely sure he could take her out if she turned the thing on him. "I need more. I need Tala."

 

[Asa]

He hurt my baby.

She muttered.

Her mind... She didn't even know the real Tala... Just thought it was a cover.

She looked to Neal.

He hurt my baby.

 

[kizkiz]

"What have you done to help her? Will she recover?" Neal glanced around the kitchen noting the tiniest of details like how one pot handle was crooked by two degrees or the flakes of pepper scattered around the salt shaker. He watched the room as much as he watched momma. "What are we? You made us didn't you?"

 

[Asa]

I took you both in...Wolf and I never could have kids of our own so when we found you and Tala We took you both in as our own. This place...this little town I buried in your minds to find me when you are in trouble. Wolf calls it genetic but its not... It is something none of them could do.

She reached a hand and patted his cheek.

A mother's love.

 

[kizkiz]

Then Neal understood. He sighed when mamma touched his cheek leaving a streak of flour in her wake. He voiced his thoughts, even though it was redundant. More details were surfacing.

"You don't know what we are really do you? You found us-" He had a flash of a memory. He dropped to his knees, pressing his hands against his forehead.

He was a little boy. He was so emaciated his skin stuck his ribs like glue but his belly had grown like he was pregnant. Walking was hard, because his joints ached. His vision swam with little black motes that left hazy after images. He clung to the shadows of an alley, hoping someone would drop a potato or chunk of meat. Sometimes the strangers left wrappers still coated in liquified fat or bread crumbs. One lady was doing just that. Someone had jostled her and her entire empanada fell to the ground. She looked at it, shook her head, and kicked to the side so other people wouldn't step in it. One of the stray dogs saw it and bolted. Neal was going to be too slow, but he had to try, he had to eat, he needed that...

Neal blinked. Looked up into mamma's overhead shadow and tear stricken face. "You dropped it on purpose..."

 

[Asa]

She smiled to him. Momma looks after her baby boy even all grown up. That dog would not have eat it. Old Sarge found you first.

She pointed to a picture of him and the dog.

He helped to help you so we could take you in without scaring you and raise you. My stubborn little man.


WOLF!!!!!! MOMMA!!!!!! NEAL!!!!!!!!

Words roared from the second floor. She knew she was home but she did not know the man walking down the hall. Before Neal's unlucky travel companion knew what hit him be was on the ground with a crazed woman from the picture Neal had shown him with two nighthawks pressed against his skull and cut nearly to his spine.

Tala was mixed parts scared and enraged. Wolf could be heard bolting as fast as he could up the stairs with a loud.


SHIT.... LETS MOVE IT JUNIOR!!!!

Wolf knew how lethal she was as for the first time nearly in his life when he saw that 19 yr old girl nearly take her target apart with her bare hands scared him. He unfortunately had forgotten about the nighthawks that were never car from her hands.

 

[kizkiz]

"WOLF!"

Neal's hands snapped into the sling sack like a pair of pit vipers, coming out with his Colts in either hand before the first syllable of her scream registered in his mind. His senses and his hands moved way faster then his human consciousness could ever hope to comprehend, let alone react to. That was their danger, but it was also the only way to achieve those incredible speeds.

He'd plotted ten different escape routes; each was an optimal paths based on different scenarios. It had happened automatically while mamma had been talking with him. Neal executed the eighth one. He burst up onto the granite island and ran along the counter top in-between two rows of hanging pots. He needed to not only move along the best routes but also ones that attackers wouldn't expect. A trained sniper would anticipate the typical human response. If a SWAT team burst through the kitchen windows at his flank, he needed some cover. He needed to anticipate their expectations and turn those expectations against them.

He hit the door dividing the kitchen from the dinning room with enough force to knock it off its hinges. While it flew forward over the top of the table, he altered his forward momentum by kicking the side of the dinning room table, sending him towards the far wall.

"MOMMA!"

His guns were up, sweeping the room even as he ran along the side of the wall. He came back down, dropping and sliding on the throw rug, taking it like a toboggan through the rest of the dinning room and into the entryway.

"NEAL!

He caught sight of Wolf, red faced and panicked, about mid-way up the stairs. The old man started to scream, "SHIT.... LETS MOVE-"

Neal continued his momentum, executing a low flip through the air, guns out lateral to catch any intruders on either side. His eyes scanned, calculated, assessed, and extrapolated all places assailants could be hiding, taking cover, or about to breach.

"-IT JUNIOR!!!!"

Neal let just his right leg go straight, catching the full force of his momentum in the shock absorbing soles of his right boot. His leg coiled, and Neal was up on the banister of the stairs. He caught up and passed Wolf five stairs from the top.
The Colts were sheathed in his cargo pants before he hit the second floor hallway, and he finally grasped the nature of the problem. For a moment he almost did kill Hocuspocus. He wanted to kill anything that alarmed Tala. He wanted to rid the world of all threats to her happiness. Then his slow, conscious human mind caught up with the other part of him.

Hocuspocus for his part was just panting, "Oh fuck no. Oh fuck no. Oh fuck no." Over and over like a prayer, but no god could save a man from Tala's killer hands.

Wolf arrived on the second floor.

Neal raised his hand up to Wolf to forestall any more movement. He realized how inadequate the human mind was to control their supernatural reflexes. Instead, Neal raised both of his hands out wide, pleading with her to give him a hug, to let him take her into his arms, and showing her that he was not alarmed by the presence of Hocuspocus. There were no words that existed, that Neal knew of, that could stop him from killing something he'd assessed as a threat. He assumed, no he knew Tala was no different. They were the same. He hoped a gesture would do what words would fail to do.

And yet, despite the fact that Hocuspocus had been in his life for years. Despite the fact that the pair had shared so many raunchy jokes and had each other's backs in many tight spots. Despite all that. Neal realized that even if Tala killed Hocuspocus, it wouldn't alter his feelings for her. His need for her was too vast to let something petty like one human life to get in the way.

He was hers. And she was his.

 

[Asa]

She heard them arrive as her head turned to look at them. Her eyes were wild as she looked from Neal to Wolf.

He... Looks like someone Trevor would have hired... Except... Trevor... Is dead.

The word dead seemed to bring the same sadistic smile to her lips like the night they had followed her to the illegal fighting Den she called home in Morocco.

Orders Wolf?

She looked to the old man to see if this was an acceptable kill.

Wolf slowly shook his head no.

Break away Tala... Not a sanctioned kill. Junior you might need to actually speak to save your friend there.

 

[kizkiz]

"Fuck this," Neal said, dropping down to Tala's level. He didn't care anymore. She'd rebuffed him twice. He didn't have another one in him. His hand grabbed the barrels of her Nighthawks and lifted them up to his chest. He didn't care if she felt compelled to killed Hocuspocus before. He just didn't care anymore. "We are either one, or we are done."

His eyes, his most powerful assets, caught Tala's own. Like a fly caught in a web, few people could look away when Neal really wanted to hold their gaze. "Look at me damn it." He leaned forward even as the pressure on his chest from the Nighthawks intensified. "See me."

His mouth was dry. His voice cracked. Hee pressed on. "It's always been us." He pushed the barrels into his chest with all his strength. "Two as one. If you don't get that then quit fucking around and kill me already."

 

[Asa]

Neal... Wolf...Momma... They were all three there and... Acting strange.

She looked to Wolf then to the stranger on the floor then to Neal.

Why do you want me to shoot you Neal? He is the one unknown.

She spoke... His actions and words confused her.

What the hell Neal...what's with this suicidal bullshit? And who the fuck is this that I am not allowed to kill him but you ask me to kill you?

Wolf spoke up.

Because even Neal I don't think is fully Neal... He seems currently more Berkhardt dumbass then our Neal.

Hearing Berkhardt's name she backed away from all of them.

No... No more machine... No more cage... NEVER AGAIN!!!

She was screaming clawing at unseen wires fill Momma walked up behind her and hugged her.

No more Tala... You're home... Momma has both her babies home.

 

[kizkiz]

There words didn't make sense to him. He understood the meaning of each one on their own, but when strung together it was non-sense. He wanted to take her up into his arms, but she didn't want him, or she didn't need him the same way he did. It made sense. He'd seen it often enough on assignments. Hell, he deliberately cultivated it in assets. It was the name of the game, and Neal was professional enough to realize that. He stashed his Colts back into sling bag and gave Hocus a hand getting up.

Hocus was quiet. It was unlike him not to at least let off a few swear words, so Neal broke the silence for everyone, even as Tala screamed like a girl caught in a fever dream turned acid nightmare.

"Hocuspocus, here," Neal grinned, nodding to Wolf, Mamma, and then Tala. The later was still kicking and screaming, but Neal figured he'd delayed introductions long enough anyway. "Is a long time friend of mine. We've got each other's backs. He makes the best weed in the trip state area. I think we'll go downstairs and finish up breakfast."

Neal flashed his winning smile and lead Hocus back downstairs. The dinning room was a mess in large part with how Neal had just ran through it, but it was nothing a little elbow grease couldn't fix.

Hocus sat in silence while Neal righted a few chairs and put the rugs back in place. "Nice pics," Hocus said at last, leafing through the newspaper. "Your old lady is-" he cringed at another round of horrible screaming and thrashing, "Ugh, sure is dope."

Neal creaked a half smile. "Yeah, ain't no joke, yo." Neal disappeared into the kitchen and returned with some biscuits and apples. He plopped down in the seat next to Hocus and the pair ate in silence for awhile.