The hallways were a maze. We had to back track to the lab we were in, trying not to catch the attention of these monsters someone had let loose by mistake. As the alarms went off, the whole floor was evacuated while Lily and her partner went to retrieve us. That doesn't mean it was easy to get through unnoticed though, the place was swarming with all different kinds of oversized pests! Sometimes genetic engineering goes too far. This is the least fun game of hide-and-seek I've ever played, and also the first. It took us a while to get to where we were going, but we knew we found it the second we got there.
"HA!"
The man's voice burst around the corner and echoed briefly in the halls around us. The sound of metal scraping and warping filled the air.
You'd think this was a cartoon, the way the door flew down the hallway we were about to cross, skidding along the floor and spitting sparks.
"Coda! He must be here! That's the door to his lab!" Lily exclaimed loudly, as if she forgot we were in the middle of a war zone. I wasn't exactly fond of attracting more of those bugs, and whatever was around the corner. Suddenly I felt myself cross through the void again. This time it was stronger, the pull of time felt distant now as if it didn't want me to go back. As everything began to wind slower and slower, I could feel my senses becoming sharper.
The door slowed unnaturally as it flew.
"Lily, what do we do?" I turned to her quickly, I may not have another chance to speak with her if this keeps up. Time passing slower and slower every second. I could already see her eyes lighting up in slow motion, as if she had seen an old friend.
As the door began to drift into a hover, I heard Lily's words grind to a halt with it.
"Damn it, just go say hi already. We'r--"
With Lily giving me nothing more to go on, I turned the corner to see the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen to this point. That's not saying much, but really. His shocking blue eyes sent waves through me and I could feel his auburn hair melt something inside me. It was something I needed, something that was part of me that I didn't know was there until this very moment. He was shirtless and wearing nothing more than a pair of silver skin-tight jersey shorts, and it was clear that those shorts had seen better days. He moved with decisiveness toward one of the giant insects we had been avoiding. This one had spines like a porcupine on the body of a centipede with dozens of razor-like arms squirming. Something about the way he was fighting the strange creature with its own severed arm was very attractive. Everything seemed like it was in slow motion. No, it literally was in slow motion, and backwards. The creature had stopped putting up a fight and its actions were forced into a rewind. Everything was frozen and drifting, nothing to anchor it down as if gravity and time had given up on it all. Everything except us.
"Does the girl have a name?" He called out to me as our eyes met.
I could feel the bond that tied us together course through me. That same feeling that felt as natural as breathing moved between us. Our heart beats were tied with a red string, holding them at the same pace and defying everything around us. Unnatural confidence welled up in my heart, his very presence welled up energy in me.
"Origin. And that means you must be Coda."
Lily was still around the corner, now walking backwards. The door slowly made its way back toward the room he was in and the beast's arm was simultaneously tearing through its own body and being reattached. It was like I was watching a bad animation with poorly made character models. It seems this is what happened to anything we messed with in our nature-defying time bubble. I wouldn't be shocked if at any moment it popped.
"Oh, we must be a pair. I guess we're a little backwards here though."
"What makes you say that?"
"Because I started it, but you're going to finish it."
He pointed at the door, now picking up speed. I could almost feel what he was thinking, and I mean that literally. My skin feels like it's holding thoughts that aren't my own. I couldn't tell what they were exactly, but they were there. I like it. Between the beginning and conclusion, here we were in the middle of our story and dancing to our own tune. Like the covers to a book, everything was in our grasp.
"Ready when you are, babe."
He's got the cocky badass vibe down. I can't even argue with it when the two of us are casually sliding though time in the middle of a mystery bug invasion with this creature nearly three times our size breathing at our necks. I could feel the heat on my cheeks, "Oh, he could be the end of me alright." The door sped past, now approaching full speed as it neared the "launch pad" where it was originally blown away from. The emotional limiter I normally felt holding me in check was far removed now, and everything I was feeling now revolved around Coda.
"3..."
I could feel his breath against my skin from across the hall, it echoed across my body and along the string on my heart.
"2…"
The word came out on its own, the two of us were like two sides of the same coin. I could feel my thoughts flow across our bond and crawl over him. Our countdown perfectly in sync.
The steel door held its spot in time like a slingshot pulled to the max and ready to fire as Coda was on the other side preparing to launch it again, and the poor monster bug looked pitiful now as it stood next to me not even realizing what was coming next. It was excitedly approaching me in slow motion, as if it had just realized a tasty treat had appeared beside it suddenly. I wonder how all this looked from its perspective. It was just out of the path of the door with its body severed by a glitch in time. As the bubble around us burst and we rejoined the flow of time I shoved the bug into the path of the door with one hand.
Splat.
The door moved faster than before after Coda hit it again. This time it didn't miss, and we didn't need to worry about that thing anymore.
"So, about that 'babe' thing..." I drew on this confidence that was tearing me up inside begging to get out.
"Sorry, did that offend you? Are you taken?" He winked, knowingly.
"Oh, I didn't tell you to apologize. I was wondering if we could make that a regular thing, or if that was a one-time deal." This feels so natural. My mind knows it should take it slow, but I'm not feeling that this is rushed at all. There was no decision to make, this was mine. Maybe in another life I wouldn't be throwing caution to the wind like this.
"I'm thinking it was a one-time deal. I'm more of a 'dear' kind of guy. Babe isn't classy enough for someone as elegant as you anyway. It was a momentary lapse in judgement, clearly." His charm seemed to draw on something in me. The connection between us seemed intentional, like it had always been there. Almost like we were following a script we never read.
I'm still melting, by the way. Do I feel ok with this? More like, I don't think I could fight this if I wanted to. God, or whoever is listening, I don't want to fight this. The questions came rushing back, the need to survive came back, the fear of the unknown was beginning to return to my mind. Now revolving around us instead of just me. We need to get out of here. The panic trying to urge its way up through the blissful emotions of the moment were replaced by the unwelcome calmness from before. Slowing its way in, it replaced Coda's thoughts on my skin with goosebumps and a chill.
"I'll allow it." The confidence in my voice was waning, but that didn't stop me from returning his gesture. I could feel the energy subsiding as time started to get used to being normal again, but I wanted to be anything but normal. This normal didn't feel like what we just had. On my own again, I'm not sure I could describe the sensation with words. I could feel his intentions, his thoughts and emotions, his being. We had a connection like nothing I could compare with my conversations with Lily, we didn't need to talk because everything was already on the table.
I can feel his cool act shatter with my wink, and behind it is something even more fierce and daring. It was like I just gave him permission to break out of his shell. Whatever I just got myself into, there was no getting out. The time between us was trying to catch traction again and again, neither of us willing to let go of the feeling. Neither of us was ready to face the situation we were in, the danger of the moment.
Lily poked her head around the corner behind us. Wait. When did I start walking toward Coda? Like a magnet I could feel myself drawn to him, but without realizing it I had made my way down the hallway toward him.
"Oh. I ship it. It's like I'm watching live action fan fiction for characters I made, this is incredible!"
"Ship?" Turning to face Lily, I feel like this is the first time in forever that my gaze on Coda was broken.
"Like a boat or in space?" Coda said, much closer to me than I thought he was a second ago. Note to self, he's a tease. Self is ok with this. I think? Yes. Definitely. Wait, should I be?
"Geez, I knew I shouldn't have made both of you like this."
Coda takes my hand, and I want to be whisked away. The moment our hands touch I can feel our connection again and the confidence comes back. I feel like we can face anything. This invincible feeling and the urgency I felt were at odds with each other.
"Ships don't have wheels, especially third ones." He said, turning away and leaving Lily to fan-girl again.
Even just walking together, time tries its best to keep up with us. We couldn't just leave her behind completely and run away, could we?
"Just let me fan-girl! I've waited so long for this!"
"Dear, I think we've been on a blind date just now." It feels good, trying on these new words.
"Oh my, I don't have my wallet. Who is picking up the bill?" We both look at Lily briefly before walking away again.
Now I know what it's like to meet the one you were made for. This was more than destiny or fate, this was truth. The laws that formed the stars also demanded our stories to be told together.
I feel like we're getting the hang of this Phasing thing. Even though we let her catch up, I see Lily come to a dead stop in the hallway behind us. A defeated smile crosses her face as she whispers under her breath.
"What have I done."
I can't help but laugh softly as Lily desperately tries to keep up with our leisurely walk. I'm not sure where we're going, and less sure that it matters. The room in front of us had a broken door opposite us and to the right was scores of machinery and lab equipment. It seems that there was a fight here, and that this was the room Coda had awakened in. The blue liquid was nowhere to be seen, but familiar shards of glass lay all over the ground. A man's bloodied hand sat on a control panel not too far from where we were. Beside it, two or three of those insect bodies laid a mess, silently.
Lily screams in horror, "Allan!" as she rushes over to the control panel, stopping just far enough away that she can see his fate. One hand stretched toward the man and one covering her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes. I didn't dare walk over to see the scene myself, instinctively I knew what was waiting for me there. Flashbacks of seeing Lily torn to pieces came to mind. She turned to face Coda, as if expecting an answer. The mood from before completely shattered. Coda was searching for words, his face troubled as his gaze was on the floor. It was like he was fighting something, internally. What had been right on time for me was just a moment too late for him.
"When I woke up, things were already like this." Coda's pained eyes turned up at Allan. "Except the giant bug things were alive, and I panicked. That's when everything got weird and they were moving backwards. My instincts took over, like I'm not allowed to be anxious and confused. I've been here for a while, hoping more of them didn't come knocking. I thought my luck had just about run out when you two got here."
I knew why this Coda and the confidence he had before didn't match up, I had felt it too. The connection between us brought out that overwhelming feeling in us. It wasn't that the panic and fear didn't exist, it was that something in us was wrong. I could feel it, we were bound by whatever in our nature was causing this. Our feelings didn't come freely. I wasn't allowed to just be upset; my nature wouldn't allow it. It feels so gross to feel a certain way, or want to, and have those feelings forcefully taken from you. It makes me uneasy.
Now that we had Coda with us the panic that Lily had seemed to fade, replaced by the grief of losing Allan. They had to awaken us at exactly the same moment for us to "work", and this was the result. He had succeeded in his last moments. Rushed by the release of these demons, they had no choice. Coda and I hadn't had the chance to fully develop in our suspended state and so most of our capabilities were still just out of our reach. It was a miracle that we were even capable of time slips. We were still far from safety, but now that we were together our story was only just beginning. Despite the setbacks, we were clearly stronger together. Right now, that was exactly what we needed to survive.
Lily slowly backed away from the remains of her colleague and made her way toward the wall. After fiddling with it for a bit through the tears, a panel opened and several silver jumpsuits appeared in a case labeled in all capital letters, "EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE SUITS". Each one appeared to have high tech functions built in. She reached out and took one down, tossing it forcefully at Coda before doing the same for me.
I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I gripped the suit tightly, wishing it was because of her loss. Honestly though, I didn't want the shirtless Coda to go away right now. I couldn't stare, but I couldn't look away. I was in a life or death battle with the uneasiness trying to calm me as we started to slip our way into the new clothes, but as I took off the lab coat I was wearing before I felt time start to freeze. Suddenly the uneasiness disappeared completely, as if it couldn't hold on any longer when we Phased.
I was becoming more and more aware of this feeling, in tune with it. Because I was already taking glances at Coda this whole time, I couldn't help but notice Coda's face light up red and his lightning blue eyes frozen on my bare shoulders. In this state, the shame I should feel was replaced with confidence, taking off the rest of the coat without hesitation. I was almost afraid he was frozen too this time until he realized he was caught and looked away in a hurry. There was no hiding his feelings though, I knew that he was feeling what I had before. I could feel it in my bones, just like his words before. Whatever it was that we were attracted to in each other, it certainly wasn't natural. Lily had almost the same shoulders as me, but not once did he spare them any time. Only now did I realize the extent of our connection. No matter how natural it felt, this was fabricated. This was Lily and Allan's hope. I knew it had to be. Or else it was... No. Were these feelings really our own? Did they belong to GenTech? Could I really trust Coda? Is he wondering the same thing about me?