Changes
By Lore
- 120 reads
Light. For a moment they were blinded but that quickly subsided. They had to move, time was of the essence and they knew they couldn’t be seen.
“There they are.” She turned to her partner. “You need a haircut.” They smiled before moving behind a half finished building.
The two ducked and dodged past the various Lores and Chars, trying to get a sense of their surroundings and the people who filled them. They made sure to mark off each Lore and Char as they saw them. Soon enough, they found a quiet alcove and crouched to take a breather.
“You got around. I thought The Guild’s reports were overstating your crimes but if there’s twenty six of you running around then who knows.” She smiled. “Come on, crack a grin, we’re only human.”
“It’s kind of awkward being back here.” His already pale skin was as close to bleach white as possible whilst still being alive.
“You’ll be fine. You just have to remember what you were like back then and act like you belong.” She said spreading similarly toned foundation across her exposed skin. “You’ve got it easy. I’ve got to pretend to be your ditzy arm candy.”
“Char isn’t an idiot.” He was quick to reply.
“You know what I mean. Anyone compared to you seems stupid.” She attempted to kiss him but he evaded. “Loren?”
“You’ll smudge your makeup. Let it set first.”
Disguises applied, the pair carefully left their hiding place and entered the compound properly. Loren lead with his fake Char tracking close behind. Their first stop was the labs security centre. They waited, sidled up to an adjacent corridors corner, for someone to enter or exit the room. After a few minutes of waiting, the fake Char got impatient and waltzed up to the door. To her surprise, it wasn’t locked.
“Come on then.” She whispered in a half shout.
“Right then…” Loren started. “If I remember correctly, I corrected the problem by removing these two wires and plugging them here so..” He laid on his back as he unplugged two of the consoles wires and replaced them into redundant slots.
“It that everything?” Fake Char turned to help him off the floor, pistol in hand. “We should hurry.”
“Well… There’s a couple more things we need to do.” She sighed.
Holstering her sidearm, they weaved through the building and towards the main courtyard. Standing at its centre, a marvel of engineering. The mile tall, Y shaped construct stood proudly before them. Loren moved in closer. He looked back to his partner with an apologetic look as he placed his hand on the structures entryway. Twenty five of the finest inquisitors humanity had to offer and none of them could be bothered to fix a lift. Lacking the necessary fuel for their Breacher, the two resigned to climb the tower manually. Thankfully, their objective was only a few floors above them.
“Hand me that spanner could you?” The voice caused Loren to freeze. “Hello?” The voice appeared to come from a pair of legs.
“Sorry, here.” Coming back to his senses, he bent down and kicked the nearest spanner shaped tool to the worker.
“Thanks. And that should do it.” As the legs grew into a body, the fake Char turned their back and began to retreat.
A voice came from their Breacher. “All Council members are requested in the council chambers immediately.” Geo signed off excitedly.
“Come on then.” They smiled at Loren. He had hoped to sabotage that console but it could always wait, he had time.
The Lore and Loren met up with the fake Char as they made their way to the meeting. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, they found a seat on the edge of the council table. The room was buzzing with anticipation with the meetings purpose being the topic of the hour. To pass the time, the fake Char reached into one of the many fruit baskets and removed what she thought to be a fresh apple. She exhaled twice onto it before rubbing it vigorously against her blouse. Her initial bite may have been over ambitious as she managed to clear nearly half of the apple from its core. Her face quickly turned from content to confused to disgusted as the ‘apple’ she had just bitten into leaked copious amounts of pear juice. Frantically, she grabbed for anything she could use to mop her chin as she threw the ‘apple’ into the nearest bin. Failing to find anything, she resigned to use her sleeve. Finally, the meeting started. There they were. Lore and Char stood before the council and gave their brief yet inciteful presentation on how to properly use The Slingshot. The Fake Char was delighted, she now knew the weakness of the council; they were going to put all of their eggs in one basket. Her smile developed further as she watched Lore bite into a similar ‘apple’ as she did. The council were dismissed and so Loren and his Char disappeared into the crowd.
“You’ve got something on your face.” Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw something impossible. The fake Char turned to confirm her suspicions.
“I’m sorry?” She covered her chin as she turned. It was them.
“Just here.” Lore pointed to their chin then to the fake Char. She produced a small wipe and began to clean her slightly sticky hands. As well as removing the traces of pear juice, it also took away the makeup she was caked in. She moved next to her face, doing her best to blindly wipe the face paint away. As she did, more and more of her natural, dark skin was revealed. “Undulia.” Lore looked to her, then to her partner.
“How?”
“How?” Lore and Char retorted as Loren turned to face them.
“Wouldn’t you like to know.” She held out her hand for Loren. He took it. Char let out a short gasp.
“I told you we’d meet again my love.” He spoke with sarcasm drowning his speech. He moved onto the tips of his toes and planted a kiss on Undulia’s cheek.
“No. This can’t be happening. No.” Char’s grasp of Lore’s hand grew tighter.
“Take a good look Lore. This is your future.” He removed his partner’s sidearm and fired twice. Two bodies hit the floor. Realisations.
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