Century City Blues (Gunneh and Ana)

He never really felt right watching her while she slept, but tonight was just a little bit different. His eyes shone bright white as he made his way to her bedside and knelt beside her, reaching his hand out and running his fingers through her hair softly. "You're so damn close," he said softly. "You're sure it's me, but you're not sure enough. Figure it out, Ana. Figure it out and finally get your closure. Please, God, get your closure. I don't want you hurting over me anymore."

He sighed quietly and covered her eyes with his hand, letting his eyes dim until they were back to their icy blue colour. His eyes closed and he pushed with all his strength, forcing a vision into her dreams.


Nic looked just the same as he had the day that Ellian had "killed" him, his hair that same bright white colour, his eyes a two-tone of red and blue. He approached her carefully, trying his best not to spook her and cause some sort of irreparable damage.

"Val," he said, his voice echoing through her mind, "it's me." She turned to him and her eyes welled with tears and she started screaming at him, asking him why he had left her so long ago. He wanted to cry, too, wanted to scream, but he just held up and hand and she quieted quickly. "I'm in Century City, Anaris," he said softly. "I've been here for a while. Find me and get your closure."

And all at once, he was gone, and outside of her dream, Darkane soon followed suit.

She had been tossing and turning ever since she laid down in her bed. The alcohol in her system made it easier for her to fall asleep but her dreams never allowed her to sleep hard enough to feel good in the morning. Ana had been in the middle of a fit when Darkane ran his fingers through her hair. She instantly fell calm under his touch, trying to lean into it. The comfort made her feel good and for a brief moment, she was actually able to sleep. What happened next made her chest tighten up and she began to whimper.

***
The room was dark. She had been standing, staring at the nothingness for at least a few moments now. Just seconds ago, Ana had been watching him die again, like she had for so many nights before. The sound of his voice caused her to turn sharply. Blue eyes were full of tears and there were trails of dry tears running down her cheeks, cutting through the dirt on her face. As soon as she saw him, she screamed at him. “How could you! How dare you leave me like that Nicolae!” Her hands tightened into fists. Ana screamed that she was so broken without him and just as she was about to say something else, he put his hand up. She instantly quieted down. His words shook her to the core. He was alive? Her body began to shake. As he vanished, she screamed out for him to come back.

***

Ana didn’t wake up until after the sun had raised high in the sky. The light from her window hit her face just right, causing her to groan and roll over. She had a hangover. She felt it in her head and in the way her stomach rolled when she moved. Ana slowly got to her feet and walked into the bathroom just in time to lose the contents of her stomach before she made her way into the living room. Since Jack had given her two weeks off, she had nothing to do during the day. Making her way into the kitchen, she opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of some Gatorade knock off to help with her hangover. She also grabbed a pop-tart and plopped down on her couch. She barely remembered the vision from last night. Her mind was trying to keep her from it to keep her from hurting anymore.

Too bad her mind hadn’t planned on her to turn on the TV. As she did, the camera panned down to show a shock of white hair. Her chest felt tight and her heart began to race. The dream, vision, whatever it had been, played in her head once more. “Oh god… He’s alive…” A sob overtook her, causing her to curl up on the couch, holding herself together with her arms. Had he been here the whole time? She looked back at the TV to see the hair belonged to an older gentleman and that caused the ache in her chest to relieve a little. Even so, she still felt like she couldn’t breathe. The man was talking now, about some government project to clean up Century City. Wait a minute. That was her job and she had been doing just fucking fine.

Sitting up, she listened closer to the man. His name was Charles Hatter and he was some CEO of some big corporation in Century City. “Who the fuck does he think he is?” She asked the empty air around her. Ana finally clicked the TV off and moved to the bathroom once more to shower. Hatter had announced that he was holding a public press conference outside of the main building of his company. She planned on being there. Something about this guy didn’t sit right with her. Ana took a quick shower and dressed in a rather plain outfit. She wore a black t-shirt that was low cut but not low enough to show off any real cleavage. Her legs adorned dark skinny jeans and she wore a pair of black flats as well. For once, she actually smoothed her hair out and put on a large pair of sunglasses to hide her eyes. It was raining outside so she grabbed a black hoodie from her closet, pulling the hood up over her head as she walked out of her apartment.


She arrived on the scene in less than half an hour. People were beginning to gather around a podium that was set on a rather dinky little stage. Ten minutes later, Charles Hatter was standing on the dinky stage, getting ready to speak to the people of the city. Charles was an older man, in his late 50s or so, with white hair atop his head and muddled brown eyes. Despite his age, his looks were sharp and that just added to the way he spoke. As he began to talk, Ana got a cold chill down her spine. She glanced around, trying to spot him in the crowd, but there were too many people. “People of Century City, we have for too long, been under the idea that the two supposed ‘heroes’ of our city were protecting us from gangs and other dangers but they are not! Volte and her partner are aligned with the gangs of Lowtown and they only act like they are protecting the city.” Her hands balled into fists. Who did he think he was?

A projection screen was brought out and he showed pictures of her sneaking into Quin’s place in Lowtown to get her wounds healed. A few murmurs echoed over the crowd. Another picture showed Darkane shoving a cop against a wall. Too bad Charles didn’t mention the cop was dirty and selling drugs to kids. The crowd around her was starting to get a bit riled up. A few screamed out what could they do about the so called heroes. “They need to be captured! They need to be run out of our city!” Surely the mayor didn’t support- Before Ana could even finish the thought, the mayor walked up and gave his spill about it all. Traitor… A scowl appeared on her face as she took off from the conference before she gave away who she really was.

****

That night, she sat on the top of her apartment building, staring up at the sky above her. How was she going to deal with finding Nic and this damned Hatter guy? At the top of her list was getting rid of Hatter. Nic could wait. She had been in this city too long to have someone just come in and call her the bad guy. She had done more for this place than the general public would ever know. This place was home to her. She stood up, turning to head back into her building when she got that familiar tingle on the back of her neck. “So did you see the conference too? Seems like they’re rallying against us.” Ana closed her eyes for a moment, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slow before opening her eyes again. She didn’t really want to see him at the moment but part of her needed to. Part of her had a feeling that he was going to be a key player in finding Nic. Plus, she would need his help with Hatter whether Volte liked that or not.

"I did," Darkane replied, walking out of the shadows, "and I also happened upon a bit of reading material about Mr. Hatter and his company. Be mindful, though, when I say that I 'happened upon it,' I mean that I got into their building, hacked their database and I stole it. Just know that I can be a little bit of a villain from time to time."

"It seems that Hatter has some crazy idea that he can manufacture metas that are stronger, faster, smarter and more easily controllable than we are," he said with a sigh, "and he says he's doing it for the good of Century City, but I'll be fucked if I even think about believing that load of bullshit for even half a fucking minute. Something is extremely fishy about this. It doesn't feel right, and how is the mayor going to go and support everything we fucking do one moment and then go on some long as fuck spiel about how he never trusted us and we should be stopped?"

He flipped his hood up and his eyes burned brighter than ever with his anger and confusion. "Let's go talk to somebody, shall we? You're riding with me." He wrapped his arms around her waist and shot off into the night once again.

He was trying to make metas better than them? Why? She was about to give Darkane an explination on why the mayor suddenly switched sides but he grabbed her around her waist and off they were. When they arrived in front of what seemed to be an abandoned house on the edge of the city, she had gone from Ana to Volte in personality. The blond held onto his arm tight as she caught her breath, sending him a glare as she looked up at him. “We really need to find a better way for both of us to travel asshole.” She couldn’t help but smile as she finally got a chance to call him that again. The two looked around before waking inside the house.

Inside was a man in a white t-shirt and jeans. He had a manila file sitting on his lap. He looked up through his glasses at the pair and smirked. “So you brought Volte huh? No one ever told me how damn sexy she was.” Volte raised her lip up in a half snarl at him. “Watch your mouth dude.” She spat, tired of men calling her sexy. She wasn’t sexy, she was dangerous. Did none of them realize that? Darkane just shot her a look before she looked back to the man. His long dark hair was kind of a turn on but she ignored that feeling. He finally spoke again. “I’m Rabbit. I work for Hatter. Yeah, Alice reference with the code name. Get over it. I’ve got a file here for you two. Hatter is planning on unveiling his first Meta, a pyrokenetic male in his early thirties. He’s a bit older but all the younger subjects have been… well, let’s just say they didn’t listen to Hatter and he dealt away with them.”

Volte felt her insides burn. She knew was it was like to be “dealt away” with. Her own parents hadn’t wanted her for what she was. “Why are you helping us?” Rabbit looked over at her, a very dark look in his eyes. “I have my reasons Volte and those reasons are highly personal. I don’t ask you why you’re helping out CC so don’t ask me why I’m helping you.” She looked at him like he might know something but ignored the itching question to ask more. Rabbit turned to Darkane. “You’ve got three days before the pyrokenetic comes into play. You’ve both got to be careful. This one is ex-military. He knows who he is up against so I hope you two have some unknown tricks up your sleeves.” Volte knew she had one good trick up her sleeve but she had no idea about Darkane.