One Man

( Faraway Places )

The Inquisitors on a whole were cold and methodical, unaffected by emotion and untroubled by the acts of brutality taken out by their own hand.

Tseng was one of the colder more unattached Inquisitors, swearing his undying loyalty to their ideals and giving all of his time to them. He hadn't allowed himself to be distracted by the pleasures of the flesh or the complications of marriage.

After having split away from Connor, Tseng had taken to the streets of this Chicago - to delve deeper into this new world, learn its culture and become accustomed to the inner workings of this new universe.

He stuck out like a sore thumb, that much he knew, but quite frankly he hadn't taken to the main streets enough to worry. Tseng understood and valued the obscurity of shadow, it was how he'd gotten close to some of the jumpiest Fugitives and spent their blood onto the ground.

There was a good chance that this world had another him, but his focus wasn't on finding out how different things were, his focus was on locating the runaways and bringing them to justice and clarity.

The sooner the better.

Tseng wanted out of this world and quickly.

After that somewhat weird encounter with Oliver, Tseng had phoned Jessica and asked if she'd like to grab some sort of lunch and maybe a movie. He didn't really do the whole dating thing a lot so he wasn't sure what made up a good date, but he figured lunch on him and movies with whatever treats wasn't a bad way to start.

He was currently kicking about in front of the small quaint restaurant he'd found, figuring it might be kind of fun to introduce Jessica to Japanese food, she'd seemed quite fascinated with the country itself after all.

Hopefully she liked Sushi.

Tseng adjusted the way his glasses sat on his nose and rocked back and forth on his heels, chewing on his lower lip. Waiting, he was good at that, but it was still kind of boring.

( Sorry, Do I Know You? )

( Everything Okay? )

( Spoilt Rotten )

The public library was a place Oliver seldom visited no matter what city he was currently living in. He either bought books or he read newspapers, and by and large the current crop of fiction did nothing to inspire him to apply for a library card. Standing outside on the concrete, he finished his cigarette and put it out in the sand-filled ashtray to his left, then adjusted the collar of his shirt and went inside. The lobby was lined with racks of free literature, and he perused it idly on his way past.

The interior of the building was softly lit, large wooden tables filling an area to the right of the desk, and the mage stepped aside so a woman pushing a stroller could get the wheeled contraption through the doors on her way out. The quiet made him want to yell just for the hell of it, just to see who would glare. His hard soled shoes made hollow sounds on the tiles as he made his way over to the desk, noting the bulletin board on the wall to the right. Community activities, bake sales, announcements from people selling cars.

There was a man around his age behind the counter, and Oliver tapped on the solid surface with one knuckle. "Excuse me."

Tseng was working a double shift, figuring he could use the extra money to take Jessica out to dinner or something else if she didn't want dinner, but what person didn't want dinner? Okay, clearly? He wasover-thinking things. Again. He did that, it was frustrating. Thankfully he'd been given the dull but necessary task of adding new stock to the database so whenever people came in they could find the book they were looking for without a lot of scrambling through bookcases. It kept his mind occupied.

( 20 Questions )

It was early evening and getting cold. Jessica had called ahead, but there had been no answer on Tseng's phone so she supposed that he might not be home from work yet.

She hopped from foot to foot outside the main door of the apartment block he lived in and chewed on her lower lip, rubbing the back of her neck and pulling the collar of her jacket up to protect herself from the wind. Her head was bowed to try and shield her face.

She cracked her fingers inside her pockets as she waited, hoping that Tseng would turn up before she froze and turned into an ice-cube on his doorstep. That would suck.

She needed to talk to him, really, because when they had, well, been together, she hadn't been entirely herself and she didn't want him to think that that had been the only reason she had come to visit him; to get an itch scratched.

( About That Thing That Happened... )

( Misunderstanding )

"This is something I fail to understand," Hannah announced to the world at large.

Millennium Park was abuzz with afternoon activity. The pleasant weather had coaxed people outside; they hovered near the fountains, milled about on the plaza, and sat on the grass under the shading trees. Hannah was just as excited to see the sun as anybody else, and felt like a freed jailbird when she fibbed her way out of a diner shift. She dressed for mild weather: a t-shirt, jeans, a thin cardigan, and tennis shoes. All was well until the chewed gum incident.

Walking alongside the enormous, silver Bean sculpture, she had been admiring the distorted city reflections when she stepped right in it. It was no ordinary gum. It was purple and warm and massive, like a kid had gnawed three or four pieces for the express purpose of spitting it on the concrete. She didn't notice it until a few steps later, when a page out of the Sun-Times blew under her foot. Now it was stuck there.

Hannah balanced like an ostrich and inspected the damage.

( Hard Time For Romance )

( Interest In Books )

Jessica was stirred from her light sleep by a rustling on the bed. It was still dark outside and the lights from the street were shining in muffled tones through the blinds of Tseng's bedroom, casting muffled orange slats across the room and the bed. It created interesting shadows across the floor, a zebra crossing of light and shadow but that wasn't what had woken Jessica up.

Tense and alert from the instant rustling, she curled her fingers in the pillow and found herself wondering where the knife was, remembering that she hadn't actually bought it out with her, and then that that lazy sated feeling was directly caused by Tseng. Who... was getting out of the bed. What?

She lifted her head, drawing the covers against herself as she sat up, hair sliding over her shoulders as she watched him silently, dark eyes curious and head tilted, a couple of strands of her hair catching on her eyelashes.

"Going somewhere?" she asked after a moment or so of silence, eyebrow lifted, the action clear only in the half-light of the room. She wet her lower lip. What if this was the other Tseng? Not that it mattered all that much to her right now; he didn't intimidate or scare her, she knew she would be able to hold her own if she had to. She hoped, though, that he wasn't going to attack her. They seemed to be on some kind of even footing last time they spoke. As she watched him move, even the tiniest little bit, she knew then that it was him; the lines of his body were more confident and his shoulders were being held a little straighter. This was definitely the other Tseng.

( Other Man )

( Tense Exchange )

( Broken Glass )

They had agreed to meet outside the sandwich shop to go for coffee where they could talk in private. Jessica leaned against the wall and tapped her toes on the pavement, watching the white tips of her converse wiggling as she moved her toes.

"S'cuse me, miss?" an elderly lady asked, stopping in front of Jessica. It made her jump and she eyed the woman warily for a moment before she just lifted an eyebrow and waited for her to carry on. "Could you point me in the direction of the nearest taxicab stand, please?"

Jessica was at a loss for a moment before she pushed up off the wall and leaned forward, looking up and down along the street as if that would help her. She really didn't know. She lifted her shoulders in shrug and the woman looked crestfallen. She was shivering from the cold and Jessica felt sorry for her.

Old people fascinated her. There weren't any where she had come from, the life expectancy wasn't great, and so when she saw people that had obviously been alive for at least fifty years and were human, she couldn't help herself from wanting to ask questions. But the woman in front of her had a wheel-clad trolley and her hands were shaking, possibly from age as much as the cold. Her voice shook and Jessica chewed on her lower lip.

( Raised Well )

( Warm To Drink )

( Talk Of Movies, Popcorn and Marshmallows )

The moment the sun went down and the other crawled into bed Tseng opened his eyes and settled back into the weaker half's skin, sitting up slowly and stretching until something along his back popped. He swung his legs out of the bed and scrubbed a hand through long dark hair, brow furrowing as he took in sight of a DVD with a note attached to it reading:

'Watch this'

Curiosity got the better of him and it wasn't long until he was sliding the DVD into the player and straddling a nearby chair to rest his chin atop of his arms that if one looked closely enough were scarred from wrist to elbows. It took a while for the DVD to load, but when it did Tseng was taken aback by his own face on the wide-screen television. No, not his face. The other's face.

"What do we have here?"

The screen was silent before the Tseng on it began to speak. "I know you're watching this and I know that whoever you are you're a part of me, I don't know when you became a part of me, but you are." The visual image of himself shifted in his seat and chewed on the edge of his thumb. "I know we're different and honestly? I'm scared by that. I don't remember the things you do and I have these great big chunks of memory that are just missing."

The DVD ran silent for a few moments before screen Tseng made eye contact with actual real life Tseng. "I know you exist now and I'm not just going to ignore you the same way I did before. We need to figure out a way to be one person instead of being split down the middle, I don't even know if that's possible."

"Try to be more careful, alright? It's my body as well and-" But before he had a chance to finish that sentence, the DVD was being turned off and the television was being quite forcefully switched off at the base.

This wasn't good, this was very not good. All because of that meddling... Jessica. Why couldn't people leave things alone? The way things were supposed to be? He was still for a moment before he was pulling on clothes and leaving the apartment, he needed to clear his head and try to figure his way around this unexpected turn of events.

Considering what had happened the other night, Jessica had been a little wary about going back to see Tseng. She was confused as to what had happened, and what had happened that had made him change so much. She hadn't understood. One minute he was the man that she had gotten to know and the next? The next instant he was a complete stranger that not only knew how to fight well, but called her Jess (which no one except Bethany did) and fled without his coat.

She hadn't taken the pendant off, fiddling with it as it sat at the hollow of her throat as she headed towards the library. She had some books that she needed to bring back, and she kind of wanted to ask Tseng what had happened. She didn't know how to go about asking whether or not he was really a clumsy librarian that stuttered over compliments, or if he was this ass-kicking fighter that she saw actually taking pleasure in the fight (and she respected that more than she probably should, considering she felt something similar when she was fighting), almost blowing a kiss in her direction and calling her 'Jess'.

She hadn't gone in the day after the event and she found herself missing being in the library, surrounded by books and information and, more importantly, she missed Tseng. She spent the day trying to work out what had happened, and she listened to his answer message a couple of times. She wanted to call him back, but she didn't want to say something stupid, like ask him why he disappeared on her, how he learned to fight like that... She figured it might have been a better conversation to have in person.

Jessica ran over the conversation and happenings of the night repeatedly, deciding that it was almost like there were two Tsengs. The one she knew and then the one that did the fighting. It couldn't have been the same person unless he was an incredibly good actor. She didn't know how else to explain it.

So she found herself outside the library, feeling oddly apprehensive about walking in. What if it wasn't the Tseng she knew that was in there? What if it was the other one?

But she stopped herself from dwelling on it. She'd skipped out on a day in the library already, she wasn't about to make it two. She pushed the door open, backpack hanging on one shoulder as she headed over to the desk, standing there and shuffling her feet as she waited for the attendant - whoever it was that was going to be there today (she hoped it was Tseng) - to return to behind the desk.

Tseng was in the middle of inventory, knee deep in books. He'd been doing it for the last day or so, using his notes to keep track of everything that he input into the computer as he worked. It was late in the library, only a few people lingered and they were mostly students trying to get last minute work done on assignments due in the morning.

He scratched at his eyebrow as he scanned the next bar-code, adding the book to the vast lists in the library's database. This was probably the most boring job the library had to offer but it had to be done and more often than not he was the one doing it, nobody else would. Tseng found himself in need of music, noticing that for the first time in his entire career as a librarian that he was bored and restless. That and his back was hurting.

Tseng rubbed at his hair and went about his work, willing the time to hurry up even though he had a feeling he would never be finished in time. He exhaled a breath and stepped away from the mountains of books that had amassed on either side of him and picked his way through the narrow spaces, heading back towards the main desk. He needed a new set of barcode stickers and those were kept behind the main desk.

His hair was loose and it kept falling around his face and obscuring his glasses on the odd occasion but he couldn't be bothered with pulling it back, maybe later?

( About The Other Day )

( Lots Of Trouble )

( Company )

Confusion was the best word to describe Tseng's current state of being. He'd woken up on his couch, bruises on his back and along his side, jacket-less and with no recollection of what had happened after that great oath of a man had shoved him. He'd been out with Jessica, that much he could remember, where was Jessica? Had they gone their own way? He rubbed at his hair, frustration warring with concern, hands immediately delving into the long strands where they curled.

He'd lost time, again.

Tseng breathed out and tipped his head back, swallowing hard. He hated how he couldn't remember anything beyond that shove, the way he'd tripped over his own feet and the way hatred and anger that overcome him and immediately clouded his thoughts. Then something came back to him and he reached into the hip pocket of his jeans, pulling the slip he'd gotten when he had handed his jacket in. Hopefully the bar still had it and he could collect it, he'd never meant to leave it.

His thoughts strayed to Jessica and Tseng rose to his feet, finding his phone to thumb her number. It went straight to voicemail and Tseng was hesitant about speaking up but did so eventually, "Uh, hi... it's me, Tseng. I'm- I guess I'm ringing to check in on you. I feel like I need to apologise for whatever happened last night. Honestly, I can't really remember. I suffer from... blackouts." And then he was quiet for a moment, visibly nervous. "Anyways, I hope you got home safe. I guess I'll see you soon." Tseng rolled his eyes at himself, ignoring how lame that message had been. Tseng pushed his hair back behind his ears and turned on his heel, heading into his bathroom to take a shower in the hopes of clearing his head.

It worked to a lesser extent, Tseng was able to push his concerns to one side as he focused on dressing and heading out of his apartment. He had work and a jacket to collect. It was as he travelled on the public transport that he picked at the peeling skin across his knuckles, brow deepening with confusion. He had no idea how he did these things to himself, he really didn't. It was only when he caught a kid staring at him that he stopped, dropping his hands to his sides before they disappeared into the pockets of his jeans and stayed there for the remainder of his trip.

Instead of getting off at the library, Tseng swung by the bar first and as he spoke to a man behind the bar itself he couldn't help but notice the strange looks he was getting from a couple of the security guards. What? He shook it off as much as he could, thanking the guy for handing his jacket over which apparently had been placed in the lost and found, it would have been thrown away had Tseng not swung by to collect it.

Tseng all but scurried out of the bar as the security approached, breathing in fresh air as he took a few hurried steps away from the bar. He couldn't explain it but something was telling him to get as far away from that bar as was possible, weird. Nonetheless Tseng listened to that voice in the back of his head and hopped on another train, taking him the remainder of the distance. He was even running late, he got told as much as he slid in behind the desk and his boss gave him a dirty look before muttering about timekeeping and how if he wanted to keep his job maybe he should invest in a better watch.

Truth be told, he was only half listening. He was too busy searching the library for a familiar face and when he didn't see it he almost felt his shoulders sag, maybe he had done something embarrassing last night? If only he could remember. He muttered an apology and went about cataloguing another delivery of books, occasionally glancing up as the doors opened, deflating each and every time a stranger walked through them instead of who he was expecting.

Eventually the doors became easier to ignore and Tseng threw himself back into his work, letting the words drown everything out the same way they did every other time in his life.

When Tseng had called her, Jessica hadn't quite known what to expect or do. They'd started talking and decided that finally maybe it would be a good idea for them to meet up outside of a library environment in the hopes that they might get to know each other better somewhere that didn't involve books. Surprisingly, their phone conversation hadn't been as awkward as she thought it might be, there was plenty to talk about, and it was a shame that his lunch hour was over because she had, in fact, been enjoying the conversation. They'd agreed to meet up the next evening.

To say she was a little nervous was a massive understatement. At least when she was meeting Connor, she knew that they were going to a movie or something like that. Here, though? She just wasn't sure what was going to happen. Not that she was letting it bother her. She just knew that she wanted to have a good time and to make sure that Tseng had fun too. They deserved that, right?

She'd chosen to keep it simple and wear a deep blue-green strappy top that was pinched just underneath the bust (she'd seen it and thought that the flowers on it were pretty, and since she had money from her job, she could afford these things, right?), a pair of fairly fitted jeans, her converse and a leather jacket. It was all snug and fitted, she felt self-conscious going out in it and was just very glad that the bruise on her jaw had faded. She had a watch on her left wrist, rubber bangles on her right and a jade pendant hanging at the hollow of her throat. Her knife was securely hidden, strapped to her ankle, hidden by both socks and jeans.

She checked her appearance in the mirror and wondered if she needed to put make up on. She had some, Bethany had pointed out to her when she'd first started that this stuff helped people look prettier and she spent a fair amount of time scrutinising the way that she looked before figuring that she wasn't going to show a fake side of herself, and that what Tseng was going to see was her, like the way that Connor saw her.

She chewed her lower lip for a moment before she headed out of the room, cell phone zipped securely in the pocket of her jacket, her big coat draped over one arm, sliding her room key into her front pocket along with some money and her ID. She didn't know what they were doing, so she figured it wouldn't hurt to have it with her.

She fidgeted for a couple more moments before she slipped her coat on and moved out of the doors of the hotel, fingers finding her cell phone and sliding it open, wondering if she should call him and ask where they were meeting, or if he was, as he said, going to come past the hotel to grab her before they went to wherever they were going.

These nerves, she wasn't used to. She wasn't quite sure she liked them.

It was bold of Tseng to call Jessica and even bolder to actually ask her if she wanted to do something outside of the library, away from the familiar ground and outside of his comfort zone. He was doing that Carpe Diem thing that people kept telling him about, seizing the day and saying to hell with it. Jessica was a nice girl and he had fun hanging out with her, nothing wrong with wanting to spend more time with her, right?

He'd assessed his reflection a couple times before giving up and just throwing on whatever felt comfortable. This consisted of a well worn pair of jeans, dark trainers, a shirt with a long sleeved top beneath it, he'd even pulled his hair back and secured it into a small ponytail at the base of his skull and then just thrown a jacket over the top of it all. And he couldn't go anywhere without his glasses and these were slid on last just before he left his apartment and took the stairs, tucking his wallet away into the pocket of his jeans.

Tseng nodded a greeting to his landlady before he took to the streets of Chicago, grateful for his knowledge of the city so he could easily hop onto trains and find his way to Jessica's hotel. Hopefully he'd gotten the address correct or this could be a long start to the evening and a somewhatembarrassing one at that.

Fortunately he had gotten the right address as he caught sight of Jessica from across the road. "Jessica," he called before assessing the dangers and taking the road with an amazing agility that had previously been lacking in his grace earlier that day.

( Let's Dance )

( Drink? )

( I Cannot Dance )

( Leave Us Alone )

It was a cold afternoon in Chicago, people wrapped up and scurrying in and out of buildings to utilise the warm puffs of air that attacked them in the doorway, just to make sure that they didn't completely freeze on their way to wherever they were going.

Jessica moved quickly through the streets, backpack clutched against her chest as she headed towards the small sandwich shop that was just a little way down from the library that she had found herself frequenting quite a lot recently. The last time she had gone in, she hadn't seen Tseng, but another librarian had helped her out (though she wasn't as nice and reminded Jessica somewhat of an owl), giving her a few books on Japan that she had worked her way through along with a couple of books from the kids' section. She had devoured her way through them and was planning on returning them after she'd had some lunch.

She'd thrown herself back into her own self-education programme after the incident in the Mall. It had felt strange, being at a school. Being a normal kid and she didn't forget it, she remembered meeting someone called Francess, a bookish kid and she wondered if she was actually real. She'd caught herself keeping an eye out, as if she would magically and randomly bump into this girl who might not even have remembered what happened.

She slid into the sandwich shop, new coat pulled tight around herself against another biting attack from the wind. It was a size too big, she was so used to having clothes that didn't fit her properly that when the woman at the store presented her with something that was the right size, it felt wrong on her frame, so she picked the next size up and went with that. It was so warm, she kind of never wanted to take it off. The hood had some kind of fluffy trim that kept tickling her cheeks whenever she had it up, but she didn't care, it stopped her from shivering.

She deposited the bag and her coat on one of the tables, claiming it as her own before she went to join the lunch line. She noticed a couple of people watching her and she knew it was probably down to the bruise that she had along her jaw and over her cheekbone, courtesy of a fight at Devil's Own that had kicked off the night before. Her knuckles were bruised and sore too, it had been down to her and the bouncers to sort out the problem considering Bethany was out of action.

Once she had made her order, she waited patiently in line, turning the $10 bill in her hands and waiting for her order to be ready. Her hair kept falling in front of her face, so she brushed it back, cool fingertips touching the bruise on her cheek each time. Her lower lip was split too, and it stung each time she licked it, but she couldn't quite seem to stop herself.

Oh well. Nothing was going to bother her today, she would pick up some more books. Maybe by the time Oliver got back from his time with his grandma - and she was worried about him, she hadn't heard anything - she would be able to read properly. It was a possibility, she just got stuck on a couple of things that were too long or complicated for her to understand properly. But mostly, she was getting on really well and she was proud of herself for it.

She was also kind of hoping that Tseng was in the library today. He hadn't been there the last time she'd gone in, though he had the time before that. Oddly, she wanted to show him what she had been reading and looking at, and to finally return the atlas she had taken out.

Tseng was enjoying a few rare days off and had been doing his best to keep himself occupied. To say he was thankful to be going back to work would be something of an understatement even if it had been nice to get to know Chicago better. Surprisingly he hadn't gotten as lost as he thought he might, he knew the city quite well apparently.

He'd been working the early shift which meant when it came to about twelve he was let out for lunch. Feeling adventurous and somewhat in need of stretching his long legs he had made his way to a local sandwich shop hoping they had something he felt like eating. Tseng hovered in the line and shuffled forward as it moved, reaching down to pull a couple loose and clearly trodden all over pieces of denim out from beneath his converse trainers. He really needed to get new clothes before his fell apart.

It was only when his eyes took a good look at the line in front of him that his brow furrowed, it might have seemed creepy or weird but there was something familiar about the lithe brunette in front of him. He pulled the sleeves of his shirt over his hands and turned the material over in his palms before clearing his throat in a nervous uncertain way.

"Jessica?"

( How Goes The Reading? )

( What's An Embrace? )

( Little Bit Of Help )

The library was somewhere that Jessica had walked past countless times and into very few. She had wondered what it would be like to go inside one that wasn't dead, that wasn't falling in on itself, every shelf covered in dust and cobwebs, corners and darkened levels the perfect hiding place and breeding spot for the evil that crawled all over the world that she had come from. But each time she had, she had turned tail and ran away.

But hearing about 'England' from Bethany, another country altogether (and Jessica would be the first to admit that she was completely ignorant of countries other than America, and even then, her knowledge of it was sketchy at best), she had to admit, was curious about the rest of the world.

This one was alive, after all, why shouldn't she learn about it?

She was still learning to read, she'd progressed far enough that she could cope with almost everything that was around every day as long as she had enough time to process the words. She understood most of it too, some of the longer words still escaped her understanding, but she knew she would get it with time.

She shuffled in through the big doors, hair slid over one shoulder as she twisted her fingers in it. Already, she felt out of her element. Her toes turned inwards as she looked up at the vast library, eyes taking everything in but not even knowing where to start.

It was just gone six, a lot of people had headed home even though the library didn't close for another two hours. She took a couple of steps in, glad that there weren't that many people around.

This was the part, usually, where she walked towards the counter, turned around and all but ran out of the building. She had done it five times in the past two days. But, clearly, her curiosity won over and she took a deep breath and walked towards the counter. She didn't approach it properly, she just hovered, awkwardly, a few feet away from it, watching people moving around her out of the corners of her eyes, aware of everything in relation to herself. Her eyes landed on the man behind it for a moment, watching him for a couple of seconds, the same way she did each time she came in. This time, though, she wasn't going to flee.

She chewed on her lower lip and tangled her fingers in her hair again, dropping her gaze to the wooden desk rather than the person behind it. She wouldn't be able to find what she was looking for on her own, but she didn't know who to turn to for help either.

...What happened now?

Tseng spent the better half of his life in the library and behind the front desk which meant he was pretty aware of what went on in the library. He'd noticed the young brunette in his peripheral vision for the past two days but just as he'd turned to address her she had turned on her heel and fled. It had left him rather stumped, wondering what was so terrible about the library that had her running away.

Currently he was working another late shift and had managed to catalogue the new arrivals before he'd finally returned to the desk, pushing his glasses back up his nose before he eased his hair free of its elastic band. He pencilled a few things into a nearby book before adding a few things to the computer, fingertips gliding across the keyboard effortlessly.

It was as he sat there that he became aware of eyes on him and on instinct alone he looked up and locked eyes with the brunette. "Uh, hi." He rose to his feet slowly and cleared his throat, pushing some wayward strands of hair behind his ears. "Can I help you?"

( Looking For Maps )

( Is There Anything Else? )

( Not Crazy )

Kill anything and everything that got in his way, that was the way it worked.

Tseng had his mark in his sights and then a little girl stepped into the scope, barely eight years old with golden hair. He hesitated in a way he wouldn't have done had he been feeling himself tonight before finally pulling the trigger. The girl went down at the same time as the bullet ripped through her father's heart, falling two of the same family in a matter of seconds.

The mother's scream was high pitched and desperate, barely imparting any of its grief on the silent killer as he crouched back down and dismantled his rifle with cool precise movements. Every part had a place and it took him less than sixty seconds to close the clasps and rise to his feet, taking the ladder two rungs at a time until he hit the dark alley and he was moving.

Police sirens could be heard in the distance and the frantic cries of paramedics buzzed in Tseng's ear as he took slow and long strides, carrying his weight further and further from the scene of a tragedy. He spared one glance over his shoulder before he looked away, keeping his pace steady.

There was no remorse and no sympathy, not from this Tseng, there never was.

He got paid to do a job - he did the job and he got out - there was no reason to feel guilt. Maybe he'd even get himself a drink before he called this one in to tell his employer that it was done and there would be no more objections to his plans.

Tseng loved when a plan came together.

The night before had been a blur, beginning with the shots that had been all but forced down his throat and ending with the girl he’d been introduced to. Apparently she came to the bar a lot and everybody knew her name, little did Tseng know of her reputation. She seemed nice enough and she was even kind enough to take him home.

A shrill beeping sound dragged Tseng from his self induced coma and he reached out blearily for the offensive machine. It took a few moments for his eyes to focus and when he did he saw the familiar sight of his bedroom ceiling and he was instantly reassured that he’d made it home safely.

He was still for a moment until something caught his attention, a weight on the other side of the bed and it was with a tentative brush of his fingertips that he realised he was not alone, definitely not alone. Tseng closed his eyes and attempted to will back memory and when he did he was assaulted with images better left in the back room of some sleazy adult video store.

His cheeks coloured instantly.

Tseng sat up slowly and regarded the blonde through a haze of dark hair and moved a hand to touch her shoulder. Only to stop short as there was a startling amount of blood on his hand. His brow furrowed and then the sinking feeling in his stomach got so heavy that it opened up a hole, a hole he could only fill by reaching across and clasping hold of the sheet.

All it took was one sharp tug for Tseng’s worst nightmares to come to life.


The blonde was dead, her eyes glazed and her neck severed viciously. Tseng felt his stomach lurch and in his rush for the bathroom he smacked his knee on the nearby table, not even feeling the pain. He merely hit the bathroom floor on his knees and hunched over the bowl of the toilet, losing the entire contents of his stomach.

There was just so much blood, too much blood. He needed to make it go away. He couldn’t handle it, it had to go away.

It took a matter of minutes but somewhere in that trembling mass of limbs emerged something else entirely. It began with a twitching and a closing of Tseng’s eyes, bloodied hands pressed up against his skull as if it would make everything go away. The unfolding of the previous hunched state was slow and deliberate, a roll of his jaw and a stretch of the neck until something cracked.

“God,” he drawled after one look in the toilet. “You really need to grow a pair of balls.” Tseng picked himself up off the ground and reached out, flushing the toilet. “Can’t even handle the sight of a little blood.” The previous jerky movements were gone and replaced by the smooth lines of the man now walking in Tseng’s skin, lips curling into a disturbing smile as he regarded the blonde in bed. “She was fun, wasn’t she?”

He pushed away from the door and slid onto the bed, turning strands of hair around his fingertips. “Shame I had to kill her.” He tipped his head and inhaled a breath, following the lingering traces of perfume. “Couldn’t have her discovering our little secret.” Tseng’s hand strayed beneath the nearby pillow, pulling out a bloodstained knife and he very easily turned it through his fingers. “She didn’t even see it coming. Not from such a gentle boy. Her mistake.” And he laughed, tipping her head to one side to admire the stretch of the cut. “Such brutality. Whatever would grandmother say?”

Tseng lingered until he eventually dragged her out of bed and left her on the ground, stripping the bed and scowling at the bloodstain on the mattress. “Fucking bitch left a mark.” He crouched down and immediately wrapped her in the sheets before he stepped over her like she was nothing, pulling the mattress from the bed.

“What a mess,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’ve got my work cut out for me.”

"Hey, Rob?"

"Yeah?"

"You ever lose time? You know, have periods of it that you just can't remember?"

"..."

"Rob?"

"Yeah, dude. It's called getting totally wasted. Why? You do that this weekend?"

"...Uh, yeah. Totally."

"Sweet. Didn't think you were the sort, Tseng. Guess you never can tell, huh?"

"Guess not."

He awoke with a startling intake of oxygen and made a blind almost panicked grab for the corners of his blanket but in doing so he tangled his legs and his rise out of bed was cut short by a snag, causing him to hit the edge of his bedside table. Oh, that was going to bruise.

Tseng groaned and laid on his back, hand reached down to rub at his hipbone. His head lifted and his eyes narrowed at the blood now escaping a small cut and Tseng cursed faintly in Japanese. God, when would he ever learn? Exhaustion clung to his every movement, causing him to crawl before finally pulling himself to his feet.

He was so tired and he didn't understand why.

Tseng leaned against the nearby wall and it was as one of his eyebrows twitched that a shot of pain went right through him. Immediately a hand lifted and felt along it, brow furrowing with confusion as he located what seemed to be a small cut. What the hell? Tseng felt his way around the dimly lit around apartment and immediately bathed the bathroom in light so he could look at his reflection.

Sure enough he had a cut on his eyebrow and a bruise along his jaw.

"How the..." Tseng muttered. "I don't understand." His hands disappeared into long lengths of dark hair and he squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to understand. Had he slept walk again? Had he hit something in his nightmares? There was a twitch and Tseng licked his lower lip, willing the panic to subside.

His eyes opened and Tseng stared at a reflection he didn't understand and he did what every person did when confronted with something they didn't understand he ignored it and pretended that it didn't matter. It wasn't like it was the first time something weird like this had happened. There was probably a rational explanation for it, there had to be.

In the meantime he needed to get ready for work.

Tseng never could recall having a decent night's sleep not that he didn't try, he always went to bed early and yet always woke feeling like he'd just run a marathon.

The reason was simple and obvious to a bystander, but to Tseng it was one of life's many mysteries. As he closed his eyes something happened, one personality was smothered and the other breathed. It took an hour at most, for the changeover to happen and for the shift of control to occur. The minutes ticked by until finally Tseng's eyes opened but they were different, darker around the corners and less hesitant. He sat up slowly and moved agilely, former bumbling forgotten and inadequacy left on the floor the same way clothes were.

Tseng swept into the bathroom and paused in the mirror, slowly tipping his head to one side to observe a matted array of facial hair. He scowled and immediately reached for the razor. It only took him a few minutes but eventually the sink was riddled with uneven lengths of hair that had been on his cheeks for far too long, one hand rubbed at his now clean shaven face and his lips pulled into a smile.

The razor was discarded and the sink washed down, leaving Tseng to stare at his reflection. Every angle seemed harder and hair was pushed back instead of left to flop forward, control implemented in every touch. There was nothing worse than a lack of control especially in one's self. Sounds of a shower filled the small apartment, broken only by the body that stepped beneath the spray and rested into it. It was a ritual, every night before anything happened, Tseng showered. Almost as if he was showering away everything that had gone before.

It took twenty to thirty minutes for him to emerge and when he did the staggering amount of black and grey ink on his back was visible to the naked eye, cut off at the waist by the cotton of the towel. His hands slicked his hair back and deliberate movements had him pulling out various shades of black and white, laying the assortment of clothes out onto the bed itself.

He picked up a nearby manila folder and flicked through it, picking out a photograph and tipping his head to regard it. "Mister Simons," he muttered to himself. "You have a date with the devil." With the target's face burned into his mind's eye and habits learned over the last few nights, Tseng discarded the folder and stepped forward to dress himself.

Once completely dressed in the attire suitable for a gentleman, including a gun holster, Tseng crouched and reached beneath the bed to catch on the handle of a large black case. He lifted and rested it on the bed, sliding callused tips of his fingers along to the clasps until he opened the lid to reveal fragmented pieces of what was clearly a sniper's rifle. He'd assemble it when he got into the right place but he was checking everything was there for the moment including ammunition, not that he would need a lot, he never did.

With the check complete Tseng closed the case and turned to slide two guns into his holster, just in case. He probably wouldn't use them but it was always better to be safe than sorry. He tightened his tie then picked up the case, leaving his apartment and in truth leaving the other part of himself behind.

There was work to be done.

The last five hours had been spent putting endless amounts of books back into their rightful place, into an organised order. Tseng paused briefly to read the back of the book he had in his hand, pursing his lips as it certainly seemed interesting enough. He was so engrossed in looking at the book that he didn't hear his name being called until several minutes later which caused him to jump and hit his knee on a nearby shelf. Tseng cursed and reached down to rub away the pain in some way only to hear his name again, causing him to stumble over the mass of books he'd piled up beside himself. So much for order.

"Yes?" Tseng asked, rounding on the counter to regard his boss beneath a curtain of dark hair.

Robyn eyed the hair, causing Tseng to push it back, before she merely sniffed. "Can you work late tonight?"

Tseng felt a twitch and he closed his eyes momentarily, reaching up to scratch at the cause of what felt like a headache coming on. "Late?" He squinted and his hand flexed. "I... uh, don't think I can." He shook his head and lifted his shoulders into a shrug. "Got plans."

Robyn snorted. "Since when?"

Tseng's eyes were shut for a long moment and his jaw seemed to twitch. "I have plans." And his voice sounded different, it was deeper and more assertive than before. Then his eyes opened and they had a darker look to them. The change caused Robyn to blink and stumble back for a moment before she opened and closed her mouth on several occasions.

And in the next instant Tseng was back to his normal quiet self, as if nothing had changed. "Is that all?"

Robyn was still a little stunned but she eventually made her mouth move. "Uh, yes. That's all."

Tseng smiled and turned on his heel, disappearing back into the stacks.