Inverted (a Neil / Tenet fanfic)

Chapter 14

"You wouldn't agree".

"No, I wouldn't" he confirmed coldly.

"What's going on?" Neil's voice shouted at her back.

Crystal turned with a hurt face, not knowing how to explain it all.
Neil stared at her with widened eyes, then in the blink of an eye he pulled out his gun.

Crystal felt an arm wrapping around her neck while also Sam pulled out his weapon and pressed it at her head.

"What are you doing? No! Wait!" she cried hysterically, trying to remove the arm that Sam wrapped tightly around her neck while she was forced to see Neil's gun aimed at her.

"Put down the gun or I'll shoot her!" Sam menaced, shielding with her body.

She gasped, unable to accept that absurd situation.
She didn't want any of them to get hurt, but her mind was blank. She couldn't plan a way out.
Both the guns were aimed at her.

"Please, stop!" she begged, her eyes filling with tears that she didn't want because they blurred her vision.
She saw firm resolution in Neil's stare and when his finger pulled the trigger, she screamed and pulled Sam down with her.

Sam cursed loudly, having been so close to meet death.
Hiding behind her, he pulled her into the limousine, keeping the gun pressed on her temple.
"Don't move! Don't move!" he intimated at Neil who he was reloading his gun.

Crystal fell on the soft seats as Sam leaned to close the door and shouted at the driver to go.
She lost balance against at the sudden acceleration and bumped her head against the gun that Sam was still aiming at her.
He looked surprised too he didn't accidentally pulled the trigger.

Crystal leaned away from him, her shock mirrored on his face.
She should have guessed.
If she didn't want to act in the play, she was forced to.
But if she was simply kidnapped as a bait to attract the Tenet agents, Sam could lower his gun and tell her.
Instead he kept his gun aimed at her, desperation shaking him like a leaf in the wind about to fall, like those that were falling in that season.

He touched his ear, realizing that he was bleeding. The sight of his own blood turned him more unstable and anguished.

"They hired you to kill me" she understood, not surprised that The Korol and his gang could be so cruel to persuade her only friend to stalk her and finish her.

"You thought that staying away from me would protect me!" he shouted, some tears escaping from his furious eyes "Instead look at me now! I have to do this. But we'll die together".

That was a weak consolation, but it seemed meaningful for him.
Like Romeo and Juliet?
For her it was like Snow White facing the Hunter while craving to go back to her Prince. Sam couldn't be the prince, only envying him.

Crystal imagined him spying her, tormented by jealousy as he understood that she chose Neil, who was able to make her happy and give her everything she needed.
Succeeding in dragging her away from Neil should have been a little triumph for him. The real victory was dying with her.
How dramatic.

But Crystal didn't regret anything.
She was satisfied that Neil knew the truth, that she didn't allow her fears to caged her in Moscow and pretend to live a normal life with Sam.
Death wasn't scary anymore.
She had been lucky enough to find some redemption.
She felt it was the right price.

"Do you remember when we first met?" Sam asked, soothed by her quietness.
Again she had to remember the beginning when about to face the end and see the loop closed.

Crystal pictured a younger self, settling down in Moscow to continue her Physics studies.
In the academy gardens, Sam was lying under the sunlight and she thought he was sunbathing, but hearing his mates cackling in Russian proved her that they were drunk.
She walked closer so her shadow would cover his face.
Sam blinked and when his eyes rested on her, they widened in surprise.