Part 76: Deja Vu

                                    

                                          
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"You ok?" Galaxy Girl had asked as the engine purred to a start and the truck started to move. 
                          
"Other than the fact that your father just violated me?!?" 
He snorts sarcastically. It was the first time anyone other than his Hero or a prison or police drone had frisked him. "That was definitely the fear emotion I felt." 
The bad guy laughed nervously. 
"You know since I've been on this crazy trip with you... I think I've felt everyone." 
                          
"Oh really?" She pondered, putting one foot up onto the seat with her and crossing her arms around it. Galaxy Girls curiosity peaked. 
"Fear just now." 
He started to list them off. 
“Happiness a good deal of the time because this was more fun than I’ve ever had..." he smiled at her with a bright twinkle in his big brown eyes. “Me too.'' She quietly agreed. 
"Jealousy when I first caught sight of you in that alley with Dauntless..." 
his pale cheeks could do nothing to stop the slight blush upon them. 
“The hottest rage when I saw what he was actually doing. Blood-lust when I tried to stop him..." 
his brows furrowed. 
"Desire when we danced and also when we... you know." 
He grins towards the floor, a profound blush rapidly crept upon both of their faces at the thought. 
                          
"Loss when I learned about the events concerning my mother. 
“Betrayal upon learning my father's role in it." 
His gaze was still on the floor as that was still fresh in his heart. 
"It's funny, I go through my life experiencing only one or two minor feelings every few months and in one week with you; I experience all of the major ones." 
Toxic shook his head at the irony.   
"But perhaps the most surprising things of all...” he slowly lifts his head from the floor to look her deep in the eyes. “Guilt. I felt it." Stated the villain softly. "I felt yours as well Galaxy Girl. Back in the hotel. I wasn't going to say anything but I guess I should... because after this, when our lives are rebooted I won't be able to... but now I feel it’s right you should know." 
                          
She gulped silently. Worried for what he might say about hers, this was terrifying to Andromeda, her guilt was the one thing she always had over him. 
                          
"I've spent my life reading the guilt of humanity. The best and the worst of it." He bites his lip. 
"But never yours, and I never knew if it was because I couldn't read you, or simply because you have never done anything wrong or worth feeling guilty about... but this week I have learned that it's actually both."
                          
Galaxy Girl’s eyes barely blinked as he hurriedly explained himself.   
The hero listened intently, heart pounding away like a drum beneath the large golden star that adorned the front of her baby blue suit. 
"I couldn't exactly read your guilt, but I felt it... oh boy did I feel it." Toxic shuddered at the terrible memory. "Picking up yours made me so incredibly sick, I think it almost killed me, it was awful!  Way more painful to me than any heavy object you have ever thrown at or dropped upon me. Reading yours is something I never wish to do, like ever again." 
The manacled master criminal vowed painfully, looking at his bonded hands. 
Galaxy Girl reached across and placed both her hands into his. Their powers merging soothed and relaxed both of them, they sat like this for a minute or so, taking comfort in each other for what they felt was going to be the last time; both  knowing and coming to terms with the fact that this unusual, unorthodox truce was drawing to its end. 
                          
"Thank you for what you did back there... I cannot believe you lied for me, and in a way that made me look great by the way." Toxic gave her hands a gentle squeeze. 
"Hey now... do you pick up any guilt? I didn't lie, I never lie." She shot him a grin. 
"I just took a page from your book and told the story rather creatively. You did the rest. My part wasn't a lie. You were controlling me, just not via a mind control device as I may or may not have insinuated, but rather by waving our reputations around in front of me till I caved." Galaxy chuckled. 
                          
"I'm actually impressed." He nodded approvingly, lacing his long fingers into hers. 
"What are you going to do about your dad?"  She inquired. He took in a long, full breath. 
"Now that I know a little more about emotions, and what they are capable of... I think I need to, for the first time in my life actually sit down and talk to my father about my mother... about everything. Despite all these terrible facts I've been presented with, I have a feeling, an actual feeling, and way down deep in my gut that is telling me that there is more to this story than just what I learned from the other side of a gun." He says. 
"The one thing that I've always known with perfect clarity is how much my father loved my mother. There has got to be more to this." Then he smiled. "Maybe some quality father-son time in prison is just what we need."
                          
"I'm not mad at you for saying what you did back in the hotel room; you were right." Galaxy Girl broke the silence a minute or so later. She could look him in the eyes as she spoke because she knew if she did it would only hurt her more. 
"We can never be more then what we were before. The Good Guy and the Bad Guy, what we've always been." 
Galaxy smiles nostalgically. 
"But you know I'm never going to hate you, No matter how hard you try to make me. I never have. You'll always be my best friend, my favorite enemy. We'll always be strange sort of Frenemies I guess. I’m always going have your back, even when I'm putting handcuffs on you." 
She traced the metal cuffs with her index finger. The van slowed down and turned, it was clear from the commotion outside that the vehicle had arrived at its destination. 
                          
He looked down at her hands, giving them one final squeeze. 
"In the words of the late great Patrick Swayze... ditto." He quoted just as the truck lurched to a stop. Galaxy’s eyes welled up, but she didn’t allow the tears stream down her face. Instead, she got up, grabbed the sides of his temples and planted a long, tender kiss on his forehead. It carried everything she wanted to say, everything she felt but couldn't tell him, with it.
                          
When the doors started to unlock she pulls back. 
"Remember Toxic..." She began, wiping a lone tear away with one of her gloved hands. 
"What happened on dance tour... stays on dance tour?" 
She finishes with an ironic smile just as the door opens. 
The guards, dressed head to toe in radiation proof hazmat suits, and start to undo him.
  
"Hey Galaxy Girl." He calls up from the bottom of the ramp. The guards stop for a second to let him speak. 
"What?" She asked, hovering in midair, about to take off. 
"This never happened." 
He replied, but she could only see his back. 
"What never happened?" 
She responds back, feeling a twinge of Deja-vu before shooting up into the sky, and back towards America. 
                          
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A/N:
Hope you guys enjoyed this update as we draw closer to the ending. Once again, the full and complete book is currently available on Amazon for ONLY 99 CENTS! At this price I only make $0.35 per sale, so I am doing this solely as a promotion, with the hope to gain more reviews, so please, if you buy a copy, dont forget to leave a review. 
Thank you all so much! 
-QueenOfGeeks