Collection of Moments

Lyra couldn't do much else when she was in the hideout.

More likely, she couldn't do anything without Jeremy breathing down her neck, but right now she is staring down at a transmitted message. She didn't mean to look into his stuff. It's just... she was going over messages from other factions when it happened.

It. Being his gear was spilled all over the place when she tripped over it- she tried to tell Jeremy that this part is a path that shouldn't have clutter. But no, he has to drop his vest and field devices here with his jacket and bags.

She hated him for it, because she went to pick it up and triggered one of his pods and the device showed messages. Now she's staring down at...

She doesn't know what she's staring at actually. On the screen it showed messages with one of the factions in favor of the divided system and exile of outside scientific research facilities like state owned laboratories run by the government.

Jeremy is handling weapons and using her products to sell off volatile products off to this faction. Instead of going by the agreement that they will stay completely neutral and out of the Skirmishes happening in the field, he went behind her back and started selling off her weapons and bios to the highest paying bidder.

She fell back on her ass, sitting on the floor in front of his stuff, hugging her knees and putting her head between her knees. 'Try to breathe' she whispered to herself. Either in thought or she verbally said it, she doesn't know. She just knows it's not helping.

Already she can hear pounding in her ears. Her blood is rushing and it's making her dizzy. Or the implication of what she found is making her dizzy... she doesn't know, she doesn't care.

"This is bad." She said mournfully, behind her a gruff voice answered "what is bad" she stiffened and breathed out.

"My partner going behind my back and equipping the parties with weapons is bad." Jeremy walked over to her, staring down at her curled up form. She was still staring at something, he didn't get what until his eyes drifted to his stuff. He jerked when he saw the pod light up with the messages.

"Lyra. Look I can explain" she shook her head, her breathing shallow as she tightened her arms "no. There's nothing to explain." While Jeremy has been putting her on house arrest, his been doing the things his forbidden her to do.

He leaning down and picked her up, she kicked out her legs and her fist contacted with his jaw. She squeaked when she was dropped down to the ground when his head jerked to the side. "Don't touch me" she whispered, going back to staring at the pod.

Rubbing his jaw he decided to turn off the screen and collapsed on the floor next to his stuff, leaning against the wall with a groan. "Lyra, look it's not what it looks like." "Tell me, what does it look like Jeremy?" He felt a muscle twitch on his jaw, pain Flared up because of it.

He rubbed his jaw, gritting his teeth against the pain "my sources are playing both sides. The products we are sending them are fake and faulty, they are not getting anything. The schematics that transmits to them also transmits a virus Lyra, we need information and this is the easiest way to get it."

She closed her eyes and leaned heavily on her knees now, shaking her head "it doesn't matter. You could have told me, instead of hiding this from me" Jeremy grit his teeth again "And do what!" He bit out. She flinched and he felt bad for that, fiddling with the pod he spoke in a calmer tone "and do what lyra? You can't bring yourself to give shipments with faulty devices and fake schematics. It's against your moral code"

She whimpered quietly, he was right. She wouldn't be able to- it's wrong. "I could have created the virus.... Or used the virus that the field is already infected with to get information" she was lifted up by the front of her shirt when Jeremy's hand shot forward.

He brought her up to eye level and forced her to look him in the eyes "what?" He breathed out. She squirmed away, her eyes not meeting his "decades ago I sold information to brokers about my 'weaknesses' and the information circulated the field. You even got that information, using it to create those damned weapons of yours."

She placed her hand on his, her fingers caressing his wrist. A silent plea to let her down, she was lowered slowly but his hand didn't withdraw "it was fake. The information was fake, it wasn't information used against my weakness. It was information to fix my weaknesses, the weapons that came of it were used to make me stronger, to stabilize the runes with high density wavelengths."

Jeremy leaned forward and pressed his head against hers, breathing. He felt rage at having been played like that, he also felt betrayed.

"The physical copies had viruses in them. The transmissions had encryptions hidden for my virus, the codes were sent in separate documents to hide it. Once all of it was there, the systems and networks were simultaneously infected."

"I'm sorry" she whispered and Jeremy shook his head, his hand pressing against her throat, wrapping his fingers around it and his thumb caressing her pulse. "No. I'm sorry Lyra, I forgot how prepared you are for these things. I should have told you, I shouldn't have hid anything from you"