The Vanguard Vixen

Turana's Story (One)

Turana woke from the third dream she'd had that night. From what she knew clones weren't supposed to be able to dream. But she wasn't a clone anymore, not since that night on the rooftop with Vivian. And they weren't exactly dreams, but more of flashes of memory from her past. Only Turana didn't have a past, at least not before that night and now she was experiencing a life she hadn't lived.

 Lewis slept soundly beside her and she took a few seconds to watch him. He wasn't the most striking man she'd seen but there was something about him that drew her in, some sort of fragility that made her want to shield him from the world. At first, she had thought it was the protective instinct that had been carried on from the original, but even after that connecting line was blurred by the vixen she still felt attracted to him.

 Emotions were very new to her, something that Turana hoped she would understand before it overwhelmed her.

Just like that, she knew Vivian was on the other side of the door as if she had suddenly materialized out of nowhere.

Sure enough, when she opened the door, Vivian was there. Three guards had been placed outside the room for protection by Harold, but they were asleep, strewn across the corridor. Vivian herself was all prepped as though she was heading out. She was also carrying her gun along.

 "Vivian."

 "How many of those flashes have you had tonight?"

Turana hadn't told anyone else about the dreams. But of course, she would know.

"Three, but they are not that bad."

"Be careful, as they sometimes tend to come at any time without warning. You don't want to be in a bad place when they do."

Vivian then looked over Turana's shoulder.

"Or a good one for that matter. So you do know that there is no return for this thing going on between the two of you, not after you've crossed that line."

Turana wanted to speak, but she was starting to notice a caring character in Vivian. They had been told a little about F.O.X soldiers, and one of the biggest traits was that they didn't care about anything but the mission. Vivian was the last known of those, and it made Turana wonder whether the concern was a result of time spent among humans. Unlike herself, Vivian had been trained to kill, not to protect. Turana knew the web of confusion around the other woman was not to be easily understood.

Turana was snapped out of her thoughts when Vivian pressed the M48 into her hands.

"The two of you will stay here as I go on west to pick up Lewis' friends. Harold and Zhirkov are the only people I trust here, the general not so much."

"Why are you giving me this? You are the one who is going to have to cross through lines of soldiers and checkpoints. You certainly need this more than I do."

 Vivian shook her head, somewhat amused by what Turana had said.

 "You're the one in love with a man who has a two million credit bounty on his head, surrounded by thousands of people whose life work is to collect such bounties. Anyway, this is a symbol of my presence here, and in case there are spies, seeing this will make them think I am still here."

 Turana looked down at the weapon in her hands. It was a symbol; one that put a lot of responsibility on her shoulders. Vivian was entrusting her to keep Lewis and the chip safe in possibly the worst place they could hide. And if she truly was heading to the western border, it would be a while before she returned. She had an inkling of an idea to hug Vivian, which was another part of her growing emotional responses. When she looked up, Vivian was already shaking her head.

"Not the best of ideas Turana, save the hugs for him."

Turana looked back at the sleeping Lewis, and she once more felt the vixen's presence leave as suddenly as it had come. For a moment she wondered if what happened was real. Just to be sure she kicked one of the sleeping sentries in the ribs. He mumbled something about it being 'too early to go to bed' and then fell asleep again.

She was sure that wouldn't be part of her dream.

The M48 was for sure real, and its lightness surprised her. From its appearance, she had expected it to be much heavier. She looked through the scope and felt that she had the power over life and death in her hands.

Lewis opened his eyes just to see a gun pointed directly at him. He reached for the knife she had given him on the bedside table and threw it with power and accuracy he didn't know he had before. Turana's reflexes were much faster though, and she ducked out of the way. She still had to put up an act though, so she lagged just a bit, just enough for the blade to make a tiny cut on the tip of her ear.

"Lewis! That almost took my ear off!"

 "Turana, why were you pointing a gun at me?"

"I was only testing it. You on the other hand-"

She put a finger to her ear where it was bleeding. Lewis got up from the bed and had a look at the minor injury.

"I am sorry about this, definitely didn't want to put any scar on your flawless body. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Turana shared the same wicked smile that Lewis had on his face as he spoke, and she didn't resist as he pulled her into a kiss, and finally back onto the bed. The gun on the ground and the dagger in the wall were forgotten, all thoughts of war obscured by the potency of love.

Turana had her head on his chest afterwards, content with the silence filled only by the sound of his breathing and if she focused a bit, the irregular beat of his heart. It was one of the things that Vivian had mentioned to her about Lewis on the way to the dark route, just so she would know what she was getting into.

"His heart is strong for someone that has been through all he has."

 Vivian's reply was once again empty of emotion and only informative.

 "It won't be as strong when he opens it up to you completely. Let's say something happens and you die-"

 Turana cut short the statement with one of her own.
"Nothing will happen to me."

 "You are in the company of level five fugitives, better known as those wanted more dead than alive. I think the probability of death is rather high. If you died, I don't think his heart would take it. Or let's look at the alternative; if he died, would your fragile one handle it?"

As Turana thought back on that conversation she asked herself the same questions. At the moment she hadn't cared about the consequences of their relationship but now without Vivian, they only had each other to watch themselves. If something did happen to stop the beating heart she was listening to... it was just a situation she would never let be.

 Which brought her to Vivian's next question. The vixen had put forward several factors Turana had to think of. Not because she didn't want the two of them to come together, but because she had explained that relationships tended to make people vulnerable.

"The only reason we are doing this is to keep that chip out of the hands of Mainstream. What assurance can you give me that if you have to choose between him and it, you will stick with the mission?"

 That was a question Turana had failed to answer then, but now she knew exactly what she would choose in such a situation, or rather whom. It was probably one of the reasons why Vivian had left and gone out on her own. The risks that came along with the two of them were just too great.