After the Argents (editing)

Chapter Twenty-Seven | Listen

Location: The Archive

"Spit it out. You've got that look on your face."

Pora tilted her chin up to the sun. Waiting for Jye to spill whatever had him so distracted. Despite her protests, he'd carried her out onto a partially intact balcony. It might have once been inside the building, but with the walls all but gone, it gave them a perfect view of the setting sun.

Jye snorted, "I probably shouldn't let it go to my head that you're watching me so closely."

"No, you shouldn't."

"Nonetheless, my face is still complimented by all the attention," he leaned back against a broken wall. His fingers playing with something in his jacket pocket.

"Impossible," she muttered.

"You haven't killed me yet."

"No promises."

It was familiar and safe banter. But Jye still had that tense look on his face. His shoulders were tight with it. She turned towards him and waited. Letting him find the words.

Light brown eyes met her amber ones.

Then he told her all of it. What it was like finding the Archive. The carved messages on the walls, remembering the Voice. The video of the woman on Mouse's band. What she's said and how she's disappeared. Mouse's fear that something had happened to her.

Jye told her about VIC's data on Project: Argent and Gene 60 and their genetic origin. He told her about Dr. M Zara, the Voice, and her messages. Told her about what Mouse had shown him. The storms and timelines and the unfinished mission. Her plan to somehow repair the world and go back to what it was before.

It all spilled out of him in a terrible rush. She listened. Hearing what he said and focusing on what he didn't. The fear and uncertainty that underlined it all. When he finally finished, he leaned forward over his knees. As if telling it all had deflated him.

Pora put a bandaged hand on his forearm. He turned it over, folding his fingers over hers.

"So all this time, go backwasn't about her. That was a tricky move she pulled back in that cave, to get us on board."

Jye nodded.

"Repair the world and go back to what it was before." Pora shook her head at the words.

"Doesn't ask much, does she?"

"To be fair," Pora smirked, "Does a handful of words actually count as asking a lot?"

He laughed, leaning back against the wall again.

But the laugh faded. And he turned to her again. Fingers still wrapped around hers.

"Her people monitor the Archive. They could show up any minute and try to take her back."

"We won't let that happen. Not if she wants to stay."

Jye scrubbed a hand over his bruised, bandaged face. "I'm not exactly jumping at the chance to go back out there. But I don't want to just sit here and wait for them either."

Pora watched his nervous movements. "Could you handle it, if they came?"

He shrugged. Then gave her a wild grin.

"What if we just buried it? Locked the door, put a few slabs of rock over it, and got out of here. We could go somewhere safe, far away."

"Where is safe? That Colony the traders told us about? Back to the Hunters? Wanna swing by the Sunken City and pay our respects?"