Inverted (a Neil / Tenet fanfic)

Chapter 9

The more she thought about it, the more Crystal felt deeply torn.
She hated being forced into that situation.
She enjoyed being intimate with Neil, but she wished to get rid of her secret mission, to be finally free to be sincere with him and try to make herself forgiven.
He looked decent enough to deserve that. And to be free to decide if she was worthy of his affection or not.

In the morning Neil looked forgotten of the nightmare.
He was very lovable, but she guessed he also wanted to erase that vulnerability he showed at night.
After he drove them back to the camp, she held him in the car for taking some more pictures of the two of them together, then kissed him fiercely.
He couldn't know that those could be their last moments together, again.

After the daily exercise and practice with weapons, anguish filled her heart.
She pulled out her talisman, thinking back to her conversations with Neil, when he encouraged her to imagine a normal life. But those lucky holed coins were her luck, she was destined to that kind of life. And she didn't regret meeting Neil, someone good in a world of heartless people driven by money and power.

She had carried her secret phone, but when she had to send a report for the new mission, Crystal hesitated.
The Korol required more details about the camp and the vault, but her fingers ached whenever she typed the details.
After sending the crypted message, she walked to check the vault.

She planned to keep Neil around when the attack would occur. The commando wouldn't hurt her, so she was safe enough to be able to protect him.
Probably she needed to sedate him as a goodbye gift, but she was confident that she could persuade the coldblooded Russians to let him live.

The Korol was more interested in taking the Tenet's leader as his prisoner.
She hated betraying The Protagonist, but if she had to choose, she would hand him to her boss and keep Neil out of it.

When she stepped into the secured room, she realized that something was wrong.
The vault was opened.

Someone wearing a heavy gear and a mask was stealing the device.

Crystal hesitated, not being warned by her boss about any anticipated operation. And the more she checked the thief the more she persuaded herself that it wasn't someone from her oversea agency.

The thief knew exactly where to find the precious bag and no alarm was ringing.
So someone else within Tenet was betraying the Protagonist.

Fuelled by anger, Crystal watched him closing the vault then silently she crossed the thief's path before he could run away and started the duel.

He was skilled and quick, anticipating all her actions.
She tried to keep enough distance to check if he would use some weapons against her when she was harmless, but he tugged her wrist and made her lose balance.
He fell on her.

His weight knocked the air out of her lungs, but when she peered at the face behind that gas mask the view totally shocked her.

Familiar blue eyes stared back at her, with the same shock, but also a begging look.

Neil pressed a gloved finger on her lips to ask for her silence, then moved away from her, standing up and running away with the stolen goods.

But when he turned his back at her, she noticed something that was another dose of shock.
From his backpack was hanging her talisman, a holed coin with a yellow and orange thread.

Crystal hurried to check around her neck and pulled out her own talisman, the thread and both the two coins still there.
She wondered what kind of joke was that, when the alarms started to ring.
She stood up and patted the dust away from her clothes.