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The building was quiet.
Which is how it should be, Fareeha Amari thought to herself irritably, walking slowly through another smooth stone doorway of the Anubis Helix facility, trying to shrug off the itch at the back of her neck, the one she always got when things weren’t quite right.
The huge statue in the grand foyer was still and unlit, no sign of the God Program that had freed itself and caused such chaos. The program was still there, just disabled, fed in a loop by first Tariq’s basic feedback, and then by the more complex one Helix created. It was effective, but with any program capable of self improvement and self modification, it was only a matter of time before the protections would begin to fracture again.
But for now, nothing seemed to stir, the shadows that drifted around the outskirts of the room remained still, the air was thick and heavy with disuse even as modern air circulation carefully pumped stale air out of the ancient structure.
Fareeha slowly walked towards the middle of the room, stepping over the scorch marks left on ancient stone, the only remnants of the short but brutal fight she and her remaining squad mates had fought here.
Everything seemed as it should be.
Oppressively quiet.
Still.
Dark.
But still she couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was off...that someone...was here.
She twisted around at the thought, dark eyes scanning the room again. Was she being paranoid?
Another step, and suddenly she saw something, a flicker of purple near the statue.
Something that definitely didn’t belong there.
Instantly her rocket launcher came up as she slowly circled the tables, keeping her attention on the flash of purple light, even as she kept her other senses tuned in to her surroundings.
“I know you’re there!” she called, her voice seeming loud in the echoing, deathly silent chamber, “Step out, with your hands on your head now!”
She was almost fast enough.
A faint noise, almost like a quiet beep, or a console activation, was her only clue, and she whipped around, ready to fire, only to find herself completely immobilised.
For a moment she saw nothing, and then the air shimmered with that same violet light and a woman appeared, hand raised, nails glowing.
“ Hola ,” she purred, a slow smirk curving up her mouth, which rather resembled a cat who had gotten, not only the cream, but the roast chicken as well, “What an interesting surprise.”
“Who are you!” Fareeha tried to move and found that she couldn’t, or rather that she couldn’t move her suit. Inside it, she could shuffle a little inside the armour, shift and squirm, but her Raptora suit was completely unresponsive, “This is a restricted zone!”
The slender woman smirked again, amused, and obviously delighting in being in complete control of the situation, “You are here too... amiga .”
“I am authorised,” She strained against her suit, but other than hearing a very faint, very slight creak, nothing changed, “You are trespassing!”
“I can’t resist a challenge,” her captor prowled closer, stepping into one of the pools of blueish light, and Fareeha blinked as she got a good look at her opponent.
Slender, fine-boned, like a little sparrow, or a snake, she added mentally, feeling uncharitable. One side of her head was shaved, and was laced with the kind of cybernetic tech that cost a small fortune to purchase. Or rather, it was tech that she knew cost a fortune, but to an outsider would merely look like a cosmetic decision. It was subtle, but high-grade gear, as was the rest of her outfit. Apart from her hair there was no way any kind of genetic material would be left behind, and Fareeha was sure that if her hair was run through a database, no result...or no true result, would be returned.
She was pretty, delicately featured, with a little pert nose, a cupid’s bow mouth touched with colour, and a pair of large, expressive, vividly violet eyes.
And a wicked smirk.
There was a lot of playfulness about her, her eyes glittered in the half light, her lips kept quirking up a little, like she was thinking of all the quips she wanted to make.
But there was nothing playful about her steady left hand, and the glowing markers on the end of nails, that were clearly now, hacking and software navigation tools. The woman was a living weapon...and looking at her gear and hand, Fareeha suspected she was one of the best...if not the best, at what she did.
“Why are you here,” She tried to inject authority, command, into her words, but the dark, oppressive, temple air seemed to swallow them up, “What do you want?”
“I get this question a lot,” The woman laughed, the sound echoing around the hall until it sounded almost foreign, alien, “I’m here for information….Fareeha.”
That little pause before she said her name was all playfulness, the confidence of someone who knows she has, not only a brilliant hand of cards, but also knows exactly what her opponent has.
“Who are you!”
“No one important,” The woman strolled around her, and Fareeha could practically feel those violet eyes running over her as she circled, “Just a shadow.”
The situation wasn’t good, but it could be worse, Fareeha thought to herself as she strained against her locked down suit. The woman seemed far more absorbed with playing with her than actually hurting her, but who knew how long that would last.
She was also unlikely to get any answers from her captor.
Dammit, why had she come here on her own?
“Captain Amari,” the accent curled the words, especially when it was followed by a tiny chuckle, “Promoted in battle, defender of Helix Industries, daughter of...another Captain Amari.”
Fareeha glared, biting her tongue to stop from snapping at her. It was clearly what she wanted.
The purple clad woman paused in front of her, eyebrow slightly cocked, a questioning expression on her face as she waited to see if Fareeha would take the bait. When she didn’t, the smile grew wider.
And then Fareeha’s arm moved.
The suit controls smoothly moved her arm up above her head, as her other hand dropped her rocket gun to the ground, and followed its path up. Horrified, Fareeha fought against the movement with every ounce of muscle force and strength she had, but against her own state of the art flight suit… she had no effect.
“What are you…?” Doing, was the word that she didn’t finish, as the purple woman stepped forward, fingers wiggling slightly to make Fareeha’s legs spread a little wider.
She choked on the word, shocked all over again.
They stayed there for several frozen moments, Fareeha’s breath a little fast as she strained again and again, feeling a trickle of something she insisted to herself was fear, curling down her spine.
“Relax,” The woman laughed after a moment, stepping back and letting Fareeha’s legs slide back to neutral territory, “I’m not going to ravish you Captain Amari….unless you ask me to?”
She turned back to face her, eyebrow lifted questioningly again.
No! A part of her insisted.
Except...the part was smaller than she’d thought.
For a moment her mind lingered on the woman in front of her, imagining smooth, caramel skin under her hands, and purred spanish against her ear.
The thought sent a liquid warmth stab of interest through her belly.
The violet woman’s eyebrow arched higher, mouth widening, and Fareeha realised she hadn’t actually said the ‘No,’ response the other had clearly been expecting.
“No!”
“You don’t sound sure, Pájaro Azul .”
“Release me!” Fareeha struggled again, and the woman laughed delightedly.
“Oh but we’re having so much fun!” A beep sounded by the statue and the purple woman sighed softly, rolling her eyes, “Ergh, but it seems duty calls.”
She sashayed up close, her body pressing against Fareeha’s suit, little catlike face right there…
“I’ll see you soon, Pájaro Azul ,” she purred, lips feathering across Fareeha’s like the brush of a butterfly. Before she could pull away, completely Fareeha tipped her chin down, unbound by the suit, and caught her lips in a stronger kiss, which broke as the purple woman stepped back, looking surprised, but very pleased. “Boop.” she crooned, her finger tapping the trapped woman’s nose lightly before suddenly…
She was gone.
And Fareeha was free.
Instantly she grabbed up her rockets and took to the air, looking around.
Nothing...and even the little flash of purple by the statue had disappeared.
“Next time, you’d better watch out!” She called out, hearing her words echo around the chamber, stronger now. “Next time, I will have the upper hand.”
A soft laugh came out of the shadows...and then Fareeha knew, the woman was gone.