Guts Over Fear ◇ NIKITA

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Alys walked into Owen's current set up and examined the old, dusty, 'vintage' look it held. It was clear that she and Nikita both made their livingspaces a lot more homely than Owen did. Well, Guardian mindset probably doesn't include housekeeping. Despite how much she enjoyed doing so, at least if you talk to everyone else, Alys didn't snoop through Owen's things. Instead, she sat in the red and black chair and admired the details when she wasn't wondering how the man could sleep on a matress set on cinderblocks.

Not long later, Alys turned her head a bit but kept the green door in her perefrials as she traced the black designs on the chair with her finger when it opened and quickly shut. "Make yourself at home," Owen spoke, glancing at Alys with a soft smile. "She already has." The blonde had to fight not to look up when Nikita stared at her a long moment before scanning the environment.

"Is that what this is?" Nikita asked, voicing what Alys couldn't.

"What?" Owen asked, looking to both girls. The brunette shook her head and took off her gloves, giving Alys a sarcastic smile. The blonde gave her a small smile in response but couldn't evoke much more as she watched Owen walk over to the curtains that had been itching at her and opened them up. Standing, Alys was slow to take in all that he had pinned to the walls. "This is how I narrowed it down to Camden."

Photos he'd taken of survellience, post-it notes covered in that same curvy handwriting, red yarn connecting things, and a multitude of drawings, singular on the page and mostly random from what Alys could tell - animals, objects like knives and martini glasses, characters in another language - spread all over the walls of this room.

"A Guardian has certain requirements. Easy access to public transportation, proximity to secure vaults, strong satalite signal coverage, and multiple exfil routes," Owen listed off as the two women came closer. "Now, that alone eliminated big chunks of the city. After that, it was just about pounding the pavement, scouting out where he'd be. Like banks." Alys caught the way Nikita skeptically scanned the environment and Owen, with more skepticism than she normally had in new environments.

"Why banks?" Nikita asked curiously, still scanning over the room.

"Guardian protocol - rent a safety deposit box, store the Black Box there."

"What're these?" Alys finally spoke, moving past him to the drawings. Her eyes caught a lot - a butterfly, a dragon, a syringe filled with something red, two of the same hammerhead shark, a sea shell, a set of brooms crossed into and 'x', a lipstick, sketches he hadn't quite figured out yet.

"Oh, these? These are my victims." Alys was startled by how casually he had said the words, by the passive expression he wore when she faced him again. "Each one of these is a reminder of a kill I made while I was at Division." The emotion she expected to find in his initial answer was present in his next phrase, it made the words impossibly heavier than they already were. "So I never forget why I'm doing this."

"Doing what?" Nikita asked, somehow reluctant and expectant in the same tone.

"What you inspired me to do." Alys turned fully away from the littered walls and faced Owen with a touch of concern, noticing how edgy Nikita was getting about it all. "You don't hide from your sins. No, you kinda just face 'em." Alys took a subconcious, slow step towards Nikita. However her feelings towards her might be, she'd never be able to rid herself of the safety that came from proximity to her.

"Listen, it's one thing to face your sins and it's another to let it eat you alive," Nikita pointed out, shifting on her feet a bit. Alys didn't even know if Nikita knew what it was making the both of them antsy. Maybe it's the fact that Owen was acting odder than he had at Nikita's windowed apartment.