Who is Magpie?
Chapter 8- Together again

The next day they had received word from one of their moles that an employee where they worked had brought home a work computer with important plans on it. With no time to acquaint a new team, Magpie, Kookaburra, and Bluejay we’re pulled together and sent out at a moments notice.

Magpie had been training with another of the Doux when Kookaburra came to collect her, and Bluejay had already been in the garage working on his car. They all quickly changed into some inconspicuous street clothes, the girls met back up in the lobby before going to the car.

As they left the manor, Magpie pressed her hand against the window, enjoying one of the few close up views of the garden she could get. Kookaburra internalized a sigh as she noticed this, wanting so badly to just tell her the truth as the firm line of Magpie’s lips softened at the sight. She wanted so badly to be able to touch the petals that looked as soft as velvet and to smell the flowers she wasn’t allowed indoors.

“Just a quick theft.” Bluejay was telling them. “We only need the computer. We’re lucky, he lives on the top floor, so we can probably get away with pulling the fire alarm and sneaking in when he leaves.”

They nodded; Magpie wondering why she was on a team for a simple B&E, but listening anyway. The targets building had apartment doors that opened up into a central column of outdoor space, like a motel built in a circle. There were stairs wells in two opposite corners and one elevator that ran all the way up and down the ten floors.

Once they arrive they each took one of the routes up, Kookaburra going to the top to look across the open space at the targets home. There was one window leading into the plaza, but the curtains had been drawn and didn’t help provide them with additional information. Magpie had stopped to talk to a resident at the other end of the hall on the target’s floor, watching diligently in the right direction. Bluejay was in the opposite corner stairwell waiting patiently for their signal.

When Bluejay pulled the fire alarm tenants began rushing around collecting kids and bags to leave quickly. Magpie had stayed close, helping the woman get her children’s shoes on while watching the targets doos. As Kookaburra saw the curtain wave and a man look out at the other residence through the window. She noticed the bag slung over his shoulder and recognized the company logo.

Realizing he intended to bring the computer, Kookaburra ran down the stairs intending to bump into him and swipe the computer from the bag. She stepped quickly down the steps and was crossing the plaza area, to enter the floor on one end and exit down the opposite stairs where Bluejay could delay him if needed. The man stepped out and locked his apartment just as Kookaburra bumped into him for the snatch.

He reacted poorly, swinging his arm up wildly and striking her with the full back of his forearm. With his strength and her momentum he sent her over the banister and falling through the centre of the plaza. Realizing what he had done in his state of unease he panicked and fled, but Magpie scarcely noticed him. Seeing him go towards Bluejay was all she needed, unclipping a clothesline from the wall that ran across the plaza she followed Kookaburra, barely realizing she had called out to her as she went over.

As fortune had it, Kookaburra had caught herself and on separate clothing line, giving Magpie’s fall time to catch up. She had hooked the clip onto her belt but hoped to stop falling before that. With one hand on rope she reached out to Kookaburra.

“Monkey on.” She called.

Kookaburra, happily obliging, wrapped her arms and legs around her as they collided and Magpie brought her second hand to the rope.

From there Magpie gripped the rope as tightly as she could, feeling it cut into her skin and a heat prick and splinter across her palms. It slowed their descent, but not the swing of the rope. Magpie collided with a pillar on the opposite side so strongly that it made her teeth rattle in her skull. Her eyes were fuzzy for a moment but she knew she didn’t have time to wait for her vision to return.

Kookaburra had already gauged the closet floor to exit onto, choosing to climb up and over a banister rather than to drop down to the one below. Magpie let the other girl’s hands pull her up and guide her over as she tried to regain her vision.

The palms of her hands felt like they were on fire, and she stuffed them in her pockets, hiding their condition as well as she hid the pain. People were still rushing down the stairs to the sound of the smoke alarm, meaning few saw their rather quiet fall, and no one noticed them blending into the crowd of those on the stairs to leave.

Kookaburra feared that she had caused the mission to fail, but Magpie wasn’t at all surprised to see Bluejay with the laptop in the car. He had picked the man’s bag, like Kookaburra had planned, in the stairwell while running down all those flights nearby him. They all piled into the car, Magpie and Kookaburra into the backseat again.

“You can sit in the front.” Magpie spoke calmly, her breathing from running down all those stairs already slowing and her hands firmly in her pockets.

“I want to check your injuries.” Kookaburra said flatly, pulling the girls hands free to look over them.

The skin looked burned from the friction, splitting open down the middle and across her fingers between the top and bottom knuckles. Fibres from the cord wound into the torn skin, making Kookaburra look at her own hands. She had never realized just how thin and fragile human skin was compared to her own, that only showed a thin, pale pink line now.

“You didn’t need to do that.” Kookaburra muttered, trying to pick some of the fibres free.

“There was no time to check if you had caught yourself on anything. Hesitation is not a luxury we can afford. Particularly when gravity is involved.” Magpie spoke pointedly, but Kookaburra caught Bluejay’s smile in the rear view mirror and realized this was Magpie’s way of saying she cared.

People had died on assignments with Magpie before, not many because most of them were successful, but each time she had held firm on her choice of actions. The mission was first, and if she had to choose she was told to choose the mission.

“Thank you.” Kookaburra whispered, continuing to pull out debris.

“It’s not a problem.” She said, just as loudly. “Keeping the next supreme Doux alive to lead is a priority… second only to our success.”

Kookaburra laughed. She couldn’t help it as the giggle erupted from her. Magpie saying the same thing she had said when she brought her the gel didn’t escape her. Neither did Magpie’s version of respect. She was always respectful, always listened, always bowed, but she had never called Kookaburra a Doux before, let alone the future Supreme Doux.

This scarcely mattered, except the Supreme Doux’s life wasn’t treated ant differently than anyone else’s. They believed if their leader couldn’t keep themselves alive they were too weak to lead. Still, Magpie hadn’t said what she did with any hint that she believed Kookaburra was weak, instead making a rule they all knew to be fake.

Bluejay’s smile remained even as Kookaburra stopped laughing and Magpie started to pull her hands back. “No please don’t, I’m sorry. Thank you.” Kookaburra replied, pulling the girl’s hands back into her lap to keep cleaning up. Magpie gave a curt nod before Kookaburra continued. “Earlier, did you called me Kay?”

Magpie froze. “I’m sorry, Kookaburra is quite long. There wasn’t time…”

“I like it.” She smiled, interrupting the worry. “My code name is quite long.”

“Code n…”

“Does it hurt?” Kookaburra gently touched areas where the skin was still mostly good.

Magpie shook her head slowly. “No, I don’t feel pain like that.”

“Her pain receptors are dull.” Bluejay said from the front. “Somewhere along the long from the pain to her brain the connection is broken.”

Kookaburra absorbed the other girl’s face, watching it as she touched the injured areas around her hand. She noted the tremble in her bottom lip and the change in dilation of her eyes….

‘Another lie’ Kookaburra thought.

She thought it was weird that Bluejay had spoken up at all, but now she realized why. Magpie felt pain, just like anyone else, but through the use of the Mensdillia flower she was told it wasn’t pain. Inside her mind was screaming in torment, internalizing every injury she’d ever received and keeping that from her waking mind. Kookaburra hoped that none of her past injuries had been severe enough, or not treated correctly, to cause lasting chronic pain… and she hated wishing that if it did that she would never have to feel it, because she knew that meant staying on the flower.

As their car pulled back up to the Garden, Magpie hid her hands in her pockets again. “Don’t worry about them, I have some medical supplies in my room.”

Kookaburra shook her head, unwilling to let her suffer even if she didn’t know she was. “I lost my focus, and without your help I could have been terribly injured or worse. We are getting your hands treated immediately.”

Magpie didn’t respond, unsure what to say and not wanting to make an argument about it. Bluejay pulled into his parking stall and both girls opened their own doors to exit. Magpie had been sitting behind the driver’s side, and looked at Bluejay as she closed her own door.

“Something’s not right.” She breathed.

Stars had filled her vision, quickly blocking her view from the man. It seemed no sooner had she stood up then the fuzzy fog from early began seeping back over her head. She suddenly felt very dizzy, wanting badly to just be in her room, alone, and not show this sort of ‘weakness’ in front of the others.

Feeling the back of her head she remembered when she struck the wall after catching Kookaburra. There was a large welt on the back of her head, and, when she brought her hand around to look at, a small amount of fresh blood coated her finger tips. She could feel her body swaying against her will, and all attempts to focus on one spot and steady herself failed through the blur of her eyesight.

She felt someone stand beside her and grip one elbow and then wrap their arm around her back. Their grip was already firmly around her before she realized it was happening and her head flopped back against them. Looking up into the face of the other person she could pick out just enough features for a positive ID.

“Kay?” Magpie asked, and then picked her head up as she remembered the blood. “Sorry about your shirrr-te.”

As Magpie spoke her knees gave way beneath her. The dizziness taking over her vision from the outer rims of her sight inwards until her focus was so askew that the lack of focus seeped into her thoughts. Kookaburra caught her and prevented her fall, but that was the last thing Magpie was 100% aware of as everything afterward was experienced through the haze until she blacked out.

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