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Memory Gap (Alpha and Sigr)

"That fucker..." Inanna cursed between her teeth. Despite his precarious position, Buller still had the advantage of cover, even if he was mostly lying down after getting his foot shot. Not that Nick and Inanna were any better, but she aimed to end that as soon as possible. She was fed up with hiding who she was, what she was, of playing nice and following Nick's lead. It didn't matter who he knew in those parts or what they thought of them, if forced to, Inanna would end them all. Taking a quick peek over cover, something that almost got her shot, her heightened senses picked up Buller's precarious position under cover, and made her aware of how little mobility he had.

"Keep yourself still" Inanna whispered to Nick. "We don't want him moving or doing anything weird. We want him to keep his position and keep shooting at us, trust me" she said. Her eyes glazed and looked lost for a moment while her brain made a few calculations impossible for a merely organic human. Nick could see her right arm, the one with the knife, tense, synthetic muscle making the skin taut, the clothes tight. In the blink of an eye, with her arm lashing like a whip, Inanna threw the knife upwards with all the force she could muster in that position.

"Wait... wait... remember my promise?" she hushed to Nick. "Hey Buller!" Inanna shouted after a moment. "Look up!" she yelled, trusting that the persistent goon would surely follow suit, even if it didn't matter much. In the silence of the almost barren area, both Nick and Inanna could hear the wet thunk of the thrown knife falling point first into Buller's eye, the disgusting squelching sound cut by a short yelp and a gurgle. Just a couple seconds later a thud, as Buller fell aside the cover with the knife firmly lodged in his face.
 
Nick watched as his knife arched upwards, reached the peak of the arch then plumitited back down to Earth, tumbling end over end until it landed blade down with a wet smack right into Buller's eye and burring itself to the hilt in his socket. Nick cringed, "Oh...oh that was unnessessary. Jesus."

He rolled to his feet, staring in a mix of horror and amazmemt at the now dead Buller. He pushed back his cap and ran a hand through his hair, "oh man....Kessler is not gonna like this...."
 
"He couldn't be reasoned with, he was given every chance, don't blame me" Inanna lashed, "next time I'll let them shot your ass" she added, even if she was aware that Nick had saved her, but she wasn't in the mood to be judged, even if it wasn't his intention. Grumpy, she picked up her stuff and straightened her clothes. Approaching Buller's body while Nick stared, she pulled the knife out of his face with a most disgusting moist sound, cleaning it against Buller's clothes and then returning it to Nick.

Looking around, Inanna could see the scattered bodies of the mercenaries they had killed, the dirty spot on the ground of the one that took the explosive ammo shot. It was horrible and she should feel bad or at least affected by it, although she really didn't. That made her second guess herself, perhaps she was more machine that she gave credit to... but no, it wasn't that. Nick didn't seem specially fazed by the carnage after all, beyond his interest on Buller's body at least.

"Fuck Kessler" was all that Inanna had to say about Nick's worries. "And fuck you if it was your fault" she added. "These idiots didn't have to die today, but you have some kind of grudge with her..." she frowned, one would say that she sounded jealous, but that would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? "Wait, did you and that Kessler woman... were you an item?" she asked, avoiding to look Nick in the eye.
 
"What? Why? Why would you think....? God no! Seriously? Do you think that's the only way two people can have a relationship? Because that is messed!" He didn't wait for a reply, instead continuing on an unfocused tangent, "This isn't my fault. I had no way of knowing the hydraulics on the suit where gonna blow out and crush her bones. Seriously how was I supposed to know the seals where faulty!?"

He turned and started to deliver a series of kicks to Buller's already mangled corpse, "Not. My. Fault. Not. My. Fault."
 
"I was just asking-" Inanna protested, her voice dwarfed by Nick's outrage. It wasn't all that unreasonable to ask, or so she thought, but why did she even care? It wasn't like it was anything of her business right? But it seemed that she had stepped into some delicate ground, as Nick was losing it and venting by kicking Bueller's corpse. She didn't know what to do, but as Nick was the only thing she had on that new and strange world, the last thing she needed is for him to go crazy.

Approaching him and hugging him from behind she whispered on his ear. "I'm sorry, alright? It wasn't your fault, I believe you" she said, her embrace a restraining one instead of a loving one. "It wasn't your fault" she insisted, dragging him a couple of steps away from the brutalized corpse. "It's fine, I've got your back and you've got mine" she said, letting him go.

"Do you want to sort things with Kessler or should we keep going on the run?" Inanna asked. "I don't know this world, but sooner or later we are going to end up without places to run to" she added.
 
"Wait what are you....?" Nick flailed about as he was dragged backwards, clearly in vain due to Innana's superior strength, "ok, I think you may be confused by what 'Ive got your back means' it doesn't literally mean grabbing onto my back and dragging me around." He continued to protest.
 
"He's dead, no need to keep kicking him" was all Inanna wanted to tell him as an answer. She had been on the run and in several skirmishes since... well, ever she had memory of, and it was starting to get on her nerves, specially since she felt just a couple of minutes before when she froze that she may as well be losing it. "I want... no, I need to stop. We have to talk with Kessler if she's in charge or anything else. I have been on the edge since you found me and the more we do the more restless I feel" she tried to explain, even if the feeling was a hard one to describe. She was doubting her own self, and every attempt that she made for all the shootings, all the killings didn't get to her also served to make Inanna feel more of a machine. Nick was a seasoned veteran and a hard man, even if sometimes prone to get riled up, he seemed to deal with that stuff way better than Inanna could.
 
Nick kicked and squirmed trying to break free of her less than comforting embrace, "Well maybe if people just stopped deciding they want to kill me over the SLIGHTEST little thing then we wouldn't even be in this situation. Oh Nick sold me defective combat armor that crushed my skeleton, oh, Nick cheated at cards and stole my info on the military bunker then woke up a killer robot. Oh, Nick has a robot cat. Oh Nick's hanging out with the a-fore mentioned murder robot."

He stopped flailing , "Seriously the only way Kessler is gonna let me off the hook is if someone brings her my head on a spoke. Other than that there is ZERO we can do to appease the vindictive old bitch."
 
As Nick talked, Inanna's arms just lost their strength, letting him go of her grasp as he stopped flailing. Maybe she had made a mistake going to that place, following that man, and yet... she had no other reference, no other firm place, nowhere to belong. Inanna looked at Nick, a mixture of sadness and disappointment in her eyes, looking tired and without a will to fight anymore.

"Don't call me a robot" she said, wanting to sound firm but her voice was more of a broken sob. For a moment she stood silent, keeping herself restrained, but she couldn't hold anymore. "Everything is new for me, and yet everywhere we go is a desolate and fucked up place!" she yelled, looking in the verge of tears. "You are the only decent thing I have, so don't call me a robot!" she insisted, noticing her tears go down her cheeks, taking a hand to inspect that sudden wetness on her face. "Ah... fuck..." she mumbled, turning around to hide her face from Nick.
 
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