Dreaming in Static

Chapter 18

Ali

For the first time since traveling to 2117, Ali cried.

He could practically feel Victor's smugness as he crouched beside a tree, shoulders shaking, wiping away his tears.

What have I gotten myself into?

For what must be the tenth time since Alistair had embarked upon this adventure, recklessly, thoughtlessly, arrogantly--God, they were right, he was every bit the arrogant bastard they thought he was--he wished he could go back. He wished he would have acted like any sane person and rejected Victor's offer when he'd had the chance.

Ali remembered the first time regret had seized him. The first time he realized what he had done.

"You didn't say they would die--you said they'd be rendered useless. I thought you meant temporarily! Not whatever gore that was!"

Alistair, there is no backing out now. You chose this.

"I chose this, I chose this," he murmured to himself, ripping his glasses off his face and rubbing his eyes vigorously. Ali choked back a sob and shook his head to rid himself of those self-pitying thoughts. He had chosen this path, and now he had to follow through. Otherwise Victor would do it for him.

A small, rebellious whisper made its way to the corner of his brain: You still have time.

"I can hear you," Victor said suddenly, and Ali turned around, heart thumping, to find it sitting next to him, leaning against the tree. It smirked at Ali. "Do you really think that you still have time? You surrendered yourself to me a long time ago."

Ali swallowed and nodded, tilting his head back to rest against the smooth bark of the tree. "I know."

"And yet," Victor whispered, its hand emerging to grasp--almost caress--Ali's face, "you still think those terrible things about me."

Ali tried hard not to flinch away when Victor pressed its lips against his in a hesitant kiss. They were surprisingly soft and molded fluidly to Ali's own; he found himself leaning into it, his body moving of its own accord. The world seemed to sway around him, he opened his mouth, absolute adoration filling his mind in the place of disgust--

Victor pulled away. "That's enough."

Ali was breathing hard, his hand grabbing at anything real, substantial--but the dead leaves littering the ground smoldered away between his fingers, and the sky was static, and the world was static. Victor seemed indifferent to what had just happened, although he--no, it, he's an it, Ali, don't get yourself confused--was gazing at Ali in a sort of quiet triumph. "Did you like that?"

Ali opened his mouth to speak, to say no, never ever do that again, and what came out was "I loved it."

He raised his trembling hands to his face, trying to wipe away tears that wouldn't flow, Victor staring at him and smirking ever so slightly. "Good."

Andromeda

"There. Caltech." Andromeda pointed down at the field of rubble beneath them, her GPS system alerting her that she had reached her destination. "She was going to her friend's house, but I don't know where that is. This is the last place I saw her."

Jack nodded, swooping over the area in the helicopter. "Well, if she was anywhere near here, she's dead."

Andromeda shook her head. "She can't be. Just...just land, and at least let me look for her."

"Couldn't you just look up the address of her friend's house?" Ophelia muttered from the back of the plane.

"I will, once I make sure she's not here," Andromeda shot back, glaring at Ophelia. "I don't want to miss anything."