The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

"Twenty-six" (Draft 2)

"Sioux will never go for smashing things," Amadeo said.

"Cause they're mostly these really expensive computers and stuff, but Kurt likes chaos. Murph, you should take Julien onstage with you."

Morpheus asked Julien if he wanted to come with them. Julien wasn't sure. Amadeo was a very good dancer, who knew real dance moves. Julien wasn't so good. But he said he would, because Morpheus asked nicely.

So Julien went up on the catwalk with Amadeo and Morpheus and stood behind the strobe lights so that as they danced giant shadows were projected on the screen behind, and they seemed to move in slow motion. At the last moment another dancer climbed up. Morpheus thought Amadeo would have picked Gabriel, but it was Angel, dressed in some borrowed outfit that consisted of a full length fish net bodysuit with a bra and bikini of something black and shiny under it, and gloves that matched.

It was never hard or rehearsed, the dances Amadeo and Morpheus did. Basically they were go-go boys. Every song by The Irreverents was electronic, loud, and easy to dance to. Julien liked them a lot.

"It's like being in Vivid Sadness!" Julien said.

It was. It felt good just crawling all up on each other with the strobe light on them. And even when they were apart and just trying to bend and contort into the most interesting shadows they could it was fun. Julien was a pretty good dancer for someone who was completely amateur at it. And so was his sister.

Before the set ended they'd switched partners several ways. Sometimes they stood four figures in the middle of the walk with eight arms reaching up like tongues of flame. Two would go down. Angel was good at shimmying down and bending completely backward, even doing walkovers. And Morpheus and Amadeo could both do handstands. Julien made a good shadow, always moving quickly and sharply.

Amadeo was smiling all the while, dancing between the tall blonde siblings then ducking down to walk under Julien's legs and begin dancing with Morpheus. After a while they'd do nothing but walk. Two would be at the outside right behind the main banks of strobe lights and two would runway walk toward the center then either pass or turn and walk back. Of course Angel had done this for a living, but Julien had done it in clubs. They excelled at runway walking.

Amadeo thought the idea of runway as a form of dance brilliant, he and Morpheus caught on quickly. Still no one could quite kick when they walked the way Angel could. And even Angel couldn't look quite so flawless and haughty as Julien when he walked. She had attitude, but he had more.

Morpheus was so happy. All through most of the tour Julien had stood playing his keyboards and never danced. Even when they went out he hadn't danced. But that night Julien was acting up all around. It was great.

They hung around at the stadium until after the fans had cleared out rather than make a run for the house. All the fans knew where they lived, because it was their home town, and they knew the roads that lead to their houses. A lot of reporters were let in to do stories about the end of the tour. They got lots of footage of Julien and Morpheus sitting on one of the couches tangled together.

Angel did have the intelligence to hide her face. Julien had managed living so long by taking false names and never appearing at his own fashion shows, it was always believed that Dangerous was just a name on the label, and that Julien was dead. And most of the world except people in New York had never really known what Julien looked like. But most of the world had known Blade's face just a century ago, and there were still many law enforcement agencies who knew it and who would like to talk to her.