Chasing Fate (Sentinel & Guide)

Chapter 59

[[I've been waiting on this chapter for a long time. Short but...Y'all are gonna hate me for this. *evil laugh*]]

Anton was, for once, fresh and rested when they entered the precinct. His face was still terribly grim , despite the break in the case that he'd called Jack about the day before. 

The Moxo Reserve station had positively identified Marina Timm's body, as well as the time of death. Cut and buried beneath a boulder on an overlook made a dangerous landslide hazard after the rain. A bundle, not strands of her hair was secured to a small bush in front of the rock. 

A taunt that even a null could see. The killer was so confident that he wanted to send a message. He could do what he wanted, right under their nose. 

This news had made Anton go home early last night. The crime scene photos that Moxo Reserve sent over had been a slap in the face. He'd barely been able to call Marina's mother to give her the bad news. It was Farrin all over again. The thread of hope that she'd been alive all this time, only to know without shadow of a doubt that she died in the worst possible way. 

Though that proverbial slap had hurt, it also woke him up. This wasn't a cold case game. It was very possible that whoever this killer sentinel was, Marina wasn't his last victim. It was almost a guarantee. 

He told as much to Emma when he'd gone home on time for the first time in months. He wanted to clear his mind and revisit the evidence, preferably with the help of Jack and Fate. 

The non-hazardous scene samples and evidence were being overnighted as Moxo worked with Mrs. Timms on Marina's funeral arrangements. They had documented all that they could from her remains.  

But now, seeing Fate for the first time in a while, she looked like helping out would be more of a danger to her than an assistance to him. He frowned when Jack basically lifted her through the door. 

"Fate, excuse me for saying this, but you look terrible," Anton said seriously after they were in the privacy of the conference room, "Shouldn't you try... the hospital?"

"We're going there after this," Jack said with determination, "But she said she absolutely needed to see you. She's remembering things, and that's causing her migraines."

"Remembering things?" Anton was confused. What was she remembering that needed her to come here instead of properly resting and just sending a text?

Jack led Fate to a seat where she sat stock still for a while. 

"Anton... Can you please give me a rundown of what we know about the case? Tell me like I'm new." 

Still confused, Anton did as he was directed, pulling up the slide presentation he was compiling for the DA. He went over the police reports of Farrin's disappearance, then Marina's, pulling up a timeline that superimposed the photographs collected on Marina's USB. 

"So we can assume that Farrin and Marina were missing-and alive- for a set period of time. Marina seems to know more about Farrin than any of the names in the list. We can guess that they met but-" 

"It's speculation," Jack sighed.

"Yes, it's speculation, and we don't have guarantee that it's the same killer. But Fate, what is it you wanted to revisit?"

Fate's face had smoothed out as Anton went through the presentation. She hadn't been paying attention to the case notes, but to the man speaking. 

Five years changed a lot about the man. He had a new haircut and was a bit chubbier from a happy baking wife. His suits were no longer ill-fitting and he had the well-kept look of middle-aged husbands everywhere. 

But five years ago he hadn't married Emma yet. 

Five years ago he wasn't a detective, and his last name wasn't Ricin.

"Anton Fisk...Guide liason for the Lithica County Police?"

Anton dropped his pointer. He hadn't been called Fisk in years. He'd taken his wife's name, having no attachment to the random last name he got in foster care. The last day he'd been Anton Fisk had been the day he married Emma. And shortly thereafter they'd moved clans. 

Emma had gone through her surgeries and transitions, but they both thought it would be easier to start a new life than to deal with the predjudices so deeply ingrained in their neighbors minds. After he got the promotion to detective and the offer from the police cheif, they'd packed up and moved here. 

That had been three years ago. 

 "...Have we met?"

Fate was gripping her forehead, "You don't recognize me because...I wasn't Me then." 

Jack noticed Fate's heartbeat rising, the first sign of real physical distress he'd sensed in a while. He lept out of his seat to grab her hands, "Fate? What's going on?!" 

She was shaking violently, her breathing became erratic, "I was Little Bird. I remember you. I was Little Bird! It's Him, I know it! It's Him" 

Her eyes cast around the room desperately, seeing things that they couldn't. Her body began to convulse as she continued screaming words that made very little sense. Jack tried to hold her still so that she wouldn't fall, but he though she would vibrate right out of his grip. Her emotions were fluctuating wildly, Jack couldn't keep up. There were confused shouts from outside the room as her particularly strong abilities started to set off everyone in the building, putting them on edge. 

Anton burst through the conference door to call for the medic, not even having time to realize what her next words meant. 

"It's Him. I didn't do a good enough job. It's Him! He's back! He's back. Jack he won't stop. You have to-" 

Blood dripped from Fate's nose, and the last thing she remembered was seeing Jack's terrified face before darkness took over.