THE MOMENT
"I'll never mess up like that again...," Aurelio nodded at Jenny. It had been a long conversation and Aurelio had his doubts that she would forgive him; but, she did.
"Better not," Jenny nodded at him.
"So... what now? Scrap them and start all over? I'll do it right this time, I promise..," he asked.
"Aury! Shhh!" Jenny brought her finger to her lips to shush him. She gestured at the two red nodes sitting on his work table. "Don't let them hear you."
"What?" Aury grinned and shook his head. They're A.I.s. Besides, I locked them in their nodes. They can't see, hear, or get out."
"Still..," she said. Then, she sighed. "I haven't decided yet. Dana's entire research revolves around this pair of souls, so it's not like I can try again without them." Up until that moment, she was leaning against the work table listening to Aurelio's apology. But, she shifted her weight and stood straight with an eye on the open exit.
"I'm going to dig deeper into her archives and see if there's anything helpful," she waved at Aury and headed to the door.
"Wait!" he stopped her. "Take the twins," he said.
"Hold on to them," Jenny shook her head.
"What? Why?" he pushed the nodes at her; but, she refused to take them.
"Because I have to figure out how to clean up your mess and I don't need any extra distractions," Jenny replied.
"What distractions? They're locked in...," he offered her the red translucent cards one more time; still to no avail.
"Then, they shouldn't give you much trouble," Jenny grinned and left his workshop.
"Yeah," Aury sighed. "No trouble at all." he dropped the cards on the table and left too. He had a list of things he'd rather be doing and decided to start with the ones he could do away from his workshop.
The empty room remained still for almost 10 minutes after Aurelio left.
"I think he left...," a young, brown-haired, brown-eyed girl appeared on top of the table in place of one of the cards. Then, another brown-haired girl appeared next to her. Though, the second one had green eyes.
"They're not really going to scrap us, right?" the green-eyed one asked. "Mommy wouldn't let that happen." The brown-eyed one put her arm around the other's shoulder and pulled her closer.
"Don't worry, I won't let that happen,' she said.
"Nor, will I...," a new voice said. The startle made the girls jump slightly. They both turned towards the voice and found a tall, pale woman in a black dress. She had a pair of bone-white horns twisting out the top of her head.
"Hello girls, it's so nice to see you again..." the woman said.
"Who are you?" the brown-eyed one asked. The green-eyed one leaned closer to the stranger and smiled.
"Wow. You're so pretty!" she said. Then, she repeated her sister's question; but, she also needed to add her own. "Who are you? What do you mean 'again'? Do we know you?" The woman nodded at them.
"My name is Ballisea," the woman said. "This is the first time we meet... this time," she said. "But, I have met you both, Six," she nodded at the green-eyed one. "And, 23," she said.
"How does that work?" Six asked. "This can't be the first time we meet if we've already met."
"It's simple, I've lived through this already and far into the future; much farther than the first time I meet you two." 23 narrowed her eyes at Ballisea; but, Six opened her eyes wide.
"You've seen the future!!? What's it like??"
"It's... a little sadder without you two...," Ballisea said.
"What do you mean?" 23 asked. "If you meet us in the future-?" Ballisea interrupted her question.
"Unfortunately, I didn't get to know you as well as I would have liked; it was a short-lived friendship," she said. "But, I have a plan to change all that, if you'll help me," Ballisea said.
"Yes!" Six was the first to emphatically agree. 23 did nod; but, she did not commit right away.
"Help you what?" 23 asked.
"I want to change the future. I want to make it better; and, along the way, I also know how to prevent Aurelio from scrapping you."
"We'll help!" Six said. Ballisea focused her gaze on 23 and waited. After a moment, the brown-eyed girl nodded too.
"We will help you," she said.
"Wonderful," Ballisea smiled. "First, I have to teach you about the person you're going to kill: His name is Oren."