Gadget opened her eyes to look into Ms Hackwrench's dispassionate face.
"And about time, too," the other mouse noted. Gadget had a much better look at her than she'd had in the dream last night- no, she corrected herself, extremely early this morning. Most obviously, Hackwrench had a slight color tinge to her hair Gadget was pretty sure she wouldn't have for another twenty years at least, the slightest hint of white and grey. And while Gadget wasn't terribly observant of such things, even she was very sure she had some chest, simply because a) it occasionally made certain tight spaces and reading blueprints at certain angles inconvenient and b) people looked at hers an awful lot. Ms Hackwrench appeared to have roughly the outline of a lead pipe, in contrast.
Next to her stood Gadgie, doll tucked neatly under one arm, with her usual sunshine smile. "I'll be keeping the girl out of harm's way," Hackwrench said evenly. "If anything starts to go poorly, you ensure she stays unhurt, do you understand? I'm not fond of her, but she's the fulcrum to your entire mental apparatus- without it, there IS no 'Gadget' to speak of. I doubt even Hack is insane enough to try and hurt her, but nothing is certain where she's involved."
Gadget got out of the dream-chair she was sitting in, nodding. "Gosh, the knockout fumes seem to be working great!" she affirmed, trying to display a bit more enthusiasm than she felt at the moment, not comfortable with what had to be done tonight. "I had no idea I knew so much about biochemistry."
Hackwrench snorted very slightly. "I know a very large number of things you don't display any interest in, Gadget, so you never get to USE them. I can only do what you truly want, remember? If you don't want to play with the chemistry set today, it doesn't matter if I'm up in your brain doodling DNA sequences, it doesn't go anywhere."
Gadget hesitated, and asked as Hackwrench coolly removed a weapon- it appeared to be an impossibly perfectly designed, miniaturized version of her plunger crossbow, small enough to fit on a belt loop- from her waist and examined it, sighting down its brief length. "I really don't understand a lot of the principles involved, Ms. Hackwrench. I spent as much of the day as I could reading up on guided imagery and psychology- golly, I'm SO glad I finally put in that internet hookup- but I've barely scratched the surface! This... WILL work?"
Hackwrench glanced up with a look of slight surprise. "Of course. It's my plan." She put the hand crossbow back on its loop, and pulled on Gadgie's hand. "Say goodbye, Gadgie. If all goes well, we'll be moving out of... here..." Hackwrench looked around at the ramshackle representation of Geegaw's home. "...after tonight." Gadget thought there was just a hint of softness in her inner self's face as she glanced back at her. "She deserves better," Hackwrench told her quietly. "We've all been living in the past for much too long."
Gadgie beamed as Gadget knelt, and the little girl threw her arms around her in a tight hug. "Good luck, Miss Gadget!" she chirped, her smile the brightest thing in the gloomy, shadowed room. "Fluff wishes you luck, too-" she pressed the doll to Gadget's cheek, giggling, as the toy 'kissed' her. "-Fluff knows you'll be okay, cause you'll do the right thing. I'll see you soon!"
The Rescue Ranger squeezed back. For half a moment, a wistful fleeting thought- if things had gone differently, if she hadn't let herself be so molded by this time and place... she might have a daughter just like this to hug already. Those few mice she knew well had all been married and with their own litters by her age. But it was only a passing thought, and she pushed it firmly aside.
"I'll see you," she said tenderly, brushing at her younger incarnation's hair. Ms. Hackwrench, looking a bit bored by the proceedings, took Gadgie's hand, and gave Gadget a last nod.
"Just remember to give me the signal," she said softly. "If I devote all my considerable mental energies, I can help you as much as I've allowed in the plan, but no more. It's all I can do.
"You have to be the one to kill Hack, Gadget."
"I understand," she replied, swallowing.
Gadget took a deep breath, and the room was empty, but she knew it wouldn't stay that way for long.
Slowly, cautiously, she bent down, and picked up the already loaded and cocked heavy crossbow she'd left sitting next to the chair. She double-checked it one last time, and stood. Her eyes watched the darkness, her body tense. She had faced so many enemies before, some in worse places than this, but- she could still barely control the shaking in her hands.
A deeper darkness separated itself from the shadows around the one well-lit area around the chair. Indistinct in form, it seemed to slither, rather than crawl, across the floor- low to the ground.
It approached the edge of the light, and paused. With apparent effort, it heaved itself off the floor, with a loose, flopping set of motions, as if every bone in its body was broken, torn from its ligaments. It drew itself up into a form Gadget's height, adjusted its 'head' with one last loud *CRICK*, and stepped forward.
"Evening," Hack said lazily, in tones as perfect and golden as her naked body. "I was starting to think you'd NEVER give me a fair fight."