Chapter 4: Crossroads

The metropolis lights that spread out before them from all angles pretty much merging with each other into a canvas of lights, which later Alexis and Kayden took coverage in a rooftop of an empty house that seemed to bring peace to their chaos. The temperature outside was cool. The only evidence of the happenings outside was the sound of vehicles and an occasional scream from a police siren. But that however sounded like a chill, prompting people to say there are some inhabitants down there and they are oblivious to all that is going on above them. For Alexis, however, it felt as though the world, Nd blowing from the heating inward, has changed and it will never be the same again.

With her arms wrapped around her knees, she sat at the edge of the roof, and gazed into the vastness. It was all downright unpleasant for her—she was terrified, she was confused, she felt guilty. Kayden was standing some feet away from her, his shadowed tall and broad built frame moving up and down across the room, his eyes glued to the distances as though waiting for an impending threat that would pounce on them at any moment.

It was not that long since they exited the lab, confrontations with enemies and struggling with the gunfire that had ruined everything in her life for the past few hours. And now there was nothing but calm as night was around them but then again Gary understood that it was the quiet which was more deceptive than the chaos.

“Why did you not tell me before?” she asked in a hushed voice. She did not look at him but at the walls.

Kayden’s quiet steps indicated that he had finally ceased his restless movements. He paused briefly before lowering himself on the chair next to hers and leaving a gap between the two men and the woman. There was something settling in his being, even if it did not diminish the feeling of dread.

“I didn’t want to,” he said in a low voice. “I didn’t want you in this.”

“I didn’t want to involve you?” Alexis repeated sharply, sensing her words go beyond what she intended. “I am already involved, and it is you, Kayden, who has done this. From the day you came into my lab.”

He was quiet and did not reply immediately and so she turned to look at him and saw that flicker of wish he could take back the moment in his electric blue eyes. The glow of the city was the only light on his face which seemed tired and weary, like someone who had been for years on the run. His real age must be older than what he looked like, she could tell now, the burden of years was hidden under his young looking face.

"I'm sorry," he uttered at last though his voice was a kind of hoarse whisper for most of the time. "You did not have to. I never intended for things to end up like this. But right now… now because of me… you are in danger."

Deep in her chest, Alexis feel a tightening in her heart. He appeared to be so exposed, so unlike the calm, powerful one whom she has been introduced to. He wasn’t just any soldier or an outcast on the run; he was a man who had lost everything.

“I can see why you would do that,” she said quietly and was in awe of herself for speaking the truth. “But I have to ask … why did you come to me? Out of all the people on this planet why me?”

Kayden lifted his head to meet her eyes and to her surprise, there was something in his eyes which had a mix of hope and sadness. “Because you are the only one who could decipher the signal. You were the only one who was clever enough to crack it. And because … I have been tracking you for a long time actress Alexis. Longer than you could imagine.”

She felt her windpipe constrict, unsure if it was related to fear or something else that was causing her heart to race. “You mean to say that all these time, you have been watching me?”

Kayden detached his eyes from her and nodded in agreement without uttering a word. “I had to be sure. To check if you were dependable enough.”

Dependable. It was a word that both craved to say but distressingly had a weight of guilt and hope at the same time.

“Well, and now?” she said in a rather quiet tone. “Do you trust me anymore?”

Kayden took his time to respond to her question. Instead, he faced the city that was stretched out before them, his jaw setting with tension as if he was enacting a battle deep down inside. At last, he did speak – a few words that were said in a manner which stunned her.

“Yes,” he said. “I have more confidence in you than in anyone else I have ever known.”

Alexis felt her heart race as she understood the weight of his words. She was uncertain how to react, or even whether she could fully comprehend what he was saying. Everything that she had understood the world to be, the staking of her life in the profession of a scientist, was being upended by forces larger than she ever thought possible. And at the core of all this was this man-she had come to regard this alien man as a rather strange normalcy amidst the turmoil.

Trust is what she had always found hard to give him. How can she stand by him knowing that doing so means betraying her ethics and all that she has built for herself?

“I can’t just sit around and do nothing,” she mumbled with a hint of emotion. “How to help you, I do not know. This is my world, Kayden. I have a life here. I have a job here. There are people who count on me. If I don’t help you, I could end up losing it all.”

Kayden's rough stare has softened a little and for the first time since the two of them met, he took her arm and snapped this insulting silence. The grip was meek, tentative, but it transported a tide of heat into her body. She faced him completely, startled by emotion evident in his gaze.

“I know what you have to go through,” he insisted again. “And it is up to you how to choose, I will not compel you. But you have to understand… this is not only about me. The technology we’re trying to protect – if it is ever going to come to the hands of undeserving people, your whole world can be ripped apart. And I cannot let that be. Not to you.” He avoids silence so well that I almost forget how much time has gone since all his talking started. The words u made her stomach clench at that time appreciated were: It was true. She didn’t bother to surround this monumental objective in small talk. Leaving him was the last thought inside her mind. And though a part of her was deeply terrified by these thoughts and the consequences poised by these inchoate feelings, parts of her knew that simply thinking about surrendering to the emotions, dwarfed in logical foundation, was unavoidable. There was something between them – something too significant to be ignored, or rationalized away. Something too real. Something she has sensed at the first meeting with him inside the lab, standing at a distance from one another now, with him lounging on the couch so close his hand on her elbow causing the bouncy thread of connection between them to pulsate like a sine.

“Hmm, I understand that you wish for help but I...,” she said softly though reasonably. “But I will attempt to do it.”

The instant the words came out of her mouth, more than shock, there was a happiness in Kayden’s eyes and she thought she saw a glimmer of hope in his face for a second. He huggler her arm aoohht pulling her close enough to feel her warmth, YES, for one more moment more than he needed to.

“Thank you very much,” he said shaking his assigned toooda as a sign of confort but becuse of him there hope to very hard to say its voice is a weakness which made his heart in her brief scale did not movement.

For long they remained silently staring at each other as the weight of the mutual resolution they have taken which hung like a burden to them was looked. The city’s chirp had quieted in neither that that matter and all of Alexis’s attention was train of rays of smells of light in rays enveloping one of the hot sin layer of Kosden s right elbow which possessing rapidly crusted that empty within her.

And then as if having no such intentions, she found herself enclosing him. It was just a little shift – hidden from site, but it was clear to Kayden. He managed to dart his eyes towards hers and within the heartbeat that separated their glimpses toward each other, wellness between them was altered.

No action was made bu theuttubr and in utter motion around feel the height of the silence seemed hot and crackled with elements which were not uttered between them. The world outside went out to none around then central was the void above themselves the frail need space resisting as no ground and he fought against like it was in warm water.

But just like that is how it came, just as rapidly it went. Kayden drew away, a hand she had in safety abandoning her as he sprang off with a conflicting look in his eyes. “I… I can’t,” He mumbled in a strangled tone, his sheer fury barely kept in check. “Not right now.” Alexis’s pupils should have thrown themselves, Quick to disbelief at the very cutting edge. “Kayden…” “I’m sorry,” He said his voice cracking with the pain. “So much is on the line. I will not permit this — this will not permit us — any of this to get in the way.” Depressed as she was, she remained sympathetic. There were too many variables involved. Whatever they had, connecting with each other even slightly was no longer an option, not with the kind of risk they were up against. But then again, it didn’t make it any better. “It is getting late, we should all retire for now,” said kayden still looking away and in a tone that indicated that he was not interested. “I mean, how soon do we think to action the plan we discussed.” Alexis agreed but the on her shoulders weighed the what ifs. There remained the impression of the last contact on her skin, that had made itself felt while laying down, thinking about the warmth of his hand and covering it. She understood that despite all that has happened, something changed between them. Something that was irreversible. And no matter how many times they tried to dismiss it, it would only grow stronger.