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The last thing she saw was the surprised face of the man who killed her, or rather, the man she killed. She knew she was not meant to retire. Burning the candle at both ends all her life, she knew the wick was getting shorter and she did not want to fizzle out, she wanted a big bang. So, with a fistful of grenade pins and a smile on her face, Silene Oliveira died.
There was no bright light, no heavenly choir, just the burning pain, like a full body injection of propofol. When the scent of sulfur started stinging her nose she was certain her mother had been right. She had gone to hell. But the smell didn't linger, it was soon replaced with the scent of burning flesh, and with it, the sound of distant screams. Rio. Her eyes snapped open, and to her surprise, she was still in the room where she died. The dust had settled, and the fires were but smoldering embers among the rubble.
At some point she must have stood up, because she was seeing the room (or, what was left of it) from the perspective of someone who was not blown to bits, which was strange, because she definitely remembered being blown to bits.
Around the corner, led by a rifle that still looked too big and too heavy for him, came Río. He fell to his knees in the rubble, not noticing her standing right there.
"Río, mi amor, I'm here," she said, but deep down she knew there was no point. As she watched the love of her life draw a small door on his vest with the dust left over from her final action, she felt the hot sting of tears in her eyes. She had always believed in ghosts in one way or another, but she didn't think they could cry.
"Tokyo?" a voice rang out from behind her. She was not the only specter haunting the Bank of Spain, then. She turned and faced Nairobi, whose arms were already reaching out to embrace her. Being ghosts and all, she didn't think their bodies would connect. She pictured her arms cutting straight through her friend's torso, but her arms landed firmly around Nairobi's shoulders, the heat from her body radiating through her red jumpsuit.
"I thought being non-corporeal was the big thing when it came to ghosts," she said, burying her head in Nairobi's neck, breathing in the warm, alive scent of her. She felt her laughter as much as she heard it.
"To people who are alive, yes. They can't see us or feel us. I think they can sense our presence, even hear us call out sometimes, but only faintly."
"So Río can't hear me now?" Tokyo asked, pulling her head away to look back at Río. Nairobi shook her head and cast her eyes down, her eyebrows knitting together.
"I've tried to talk to you so many times after I died, but you couldn't hear me," she sighed.
"But I felt your presence, I swear," Tokyo responded, cupping Nairobi's face in her hands to direct her eyes to her own. "Somehow I knew you were with me, with all of us." Nairobi let out a wet laugh, cocking her head like she always did when she laughed. She put her own hands on top of Tokyo's and squeezed.
"He can probably feel that you're here," she said, nodding towards the hunched shape on the floor. Tokyo let go of her friend and turned towards Río, walking slowly, like he was a wild animal, easily startled. As she got close he looked up, and she could swear, for a moment his eyes met hers and she saw recognition in them.
"I just hope he knows how much I love him," she whispered, more to herself than anyone else. She let her hand reach out to caress his cheek, but it was like touching air, no heat, no solid body, no soft skin to touch. "It feels like he's the ghost, not me," she said, feeling the all-consuming despair of not being able to feel his heartbeat or the softness of his hair ever again. She looked past Río, to Lisboa who was standing there with tears in her eyes. "Take care of him for me, please," she told her, and for a moment she felt peaceful. She watched Río as he hugged Lisboa, and then the two of them left the room, and she wondered if René had seen her as she ran from the cops, if he had followed her, or if he was spared the pain and allowed to rest in peace.
-
"Tía, you should have seen Río earlier, before you woke up, he was ready to fire an RPG into the room where the army nutjobs were holed up," Nairobi laughed as they made their way to the foyer.
"That's my boy," Tokyo smiled. Nairobi met her gaze, something nameless swimming right below the surface of her eyes. She took a small breath, as if preparing to say something, but caught herself and transformed the words into a tight smile instead.
"Shame I didn't get all of them, huh," Tokyo said, nodding towards the military men handcuffed in the lobby.
"You got the most important one, though." Nairobi draped her arm over Tokyo's shoulders, and for a moment she felt like they were just walking home after a night of dancing and drinking. "Thank you for killing Gandía."
"My pleasure, tía. That snake had to go," Tokyo laughed. A thought struck her like lightning. "Hey, if we're still here... Is he too?" she turned to face her friend, a momentary panic washing over her at the thought of Cesar Gandía roaming the halls of the Bank.
"I haven't seen him," Nairobi said, her face drawing into a pensive expression. "I think...." she started, "I think we're still here because there are people still in the bank who love us. I mean, that's my theory at least. None of the army people came back, but there are others here. Come on, I'll show you," Nairobi said and grabbed her by the hand to lead her around. Tokyo chuckled to herself, feeling like she was being shown around by the ghost of christmas past.
-
"Look," Nairobi said, pointing at the hospital bed where Helsinki was resting, M16 on his lap. Behind him stood Oslo, still as a statue, watching over his cousin.
"Has he been here all this time? Has he followed Helsinki since the Mint?" Tokyo asked. Nairobi shook her head.
"He was here when I woke up, but he didn't say much. He did say that he couldn't remember anything from the time between the Mint and now, but that he was called here the moment we entered the bank."
"So, does that mean..." she trailed off, blinking the tears away. Moscow had been like a father to her, and being the cause of his death was something that had weighed on her conscience all this time, eating her away from the inside. "Is Moscow here?" she asked tentatively. Nairobi nodded and pulled her towards the museum, where the rest of the gang were apparently having a heated disagreement about the gold. Moscow was standing next to his son, trying to tell him something she couldn't really make out. Denver couldn't hear him either, but he had never really listened to his father's advice even when he could hear it.
Moscow met her eyes and his face lit up. "Niña, look at you," he exclaimed, enveloping her in a warm embrace. Moscow always gave the kind of hugs that could make you feel protected from the world, as if his arms were bulletproof, and nothing could hurt you while he was holding you. She could not find the words she wanted to say to him, so she just held onto him.
"Ah, look who finally got taken out," a deep voice said with a hearty chuckle. She reluctantly pulled away from Moscow's embrace to face Berlín. He had his usual smug smile painted on his face, but there was a glint of pride in his eyes, and unspoken "well done". She approached him and courteously shook his hand, which made a crooked grin cut across his face.
"I'm surprised you're here, since the Professor isn't," she said. She watched as his eyes filled with some emotion she couldn't quite name. If she didn't know Berlín she might have seen it as sadness, but she had never known him to be capable of sadness; anger, madness, irritation, she had seen many emotions in his eyes, but never sadness.
"Is it so far fetched to you that someone else loves me?" he asked, the look in his eyes replaced with a glint of mischief. He turned and nodded his head in the direction of the man who was currently having a heated debate with Denver. "He never stopped loving me," Berlín said with a sigh. "The moment he stepped into the bank I appeared at his side. This was our plan, our masterpiece, and I get to see him fulfill our dream. How magical is that?" He put his hand on Tokyo's shoulder like a father would do to his son. "Isn't it great that we get to be here and see this?" She met his gaze and saw only wonder and awe.
"Not to say I'm happy that you died, but I'm thankful you're here, because now I don't have to listen to him going on and on about the majesty of their plan all the time," Nairobi said with a huff.
-
Berlín and Moscow followed the gang down to the forge, but Tokyo grabbed Nairobi by the arm. "Hey, can we talk for a moment?" she asked. Nairobi nodded. "Remember back in Toledo, the night we danced and drank tequila until the sun came up?" Tokyo said, moving her hand down Nairobi's arm and intertwining their fingers, feeling the cold metal of her rings and the warmth of her skin. Nairobi let out a small chortle at the memory, nodding along.
"Yeah, and then the Professor rudely interrupted our little party and made us go back to bed as if we were in a boarding school," she added.
"There was something I wanted to do back then, but I didn't have the courage to do so," Tokyo said, holding her friend's gaze. Nairobi smiled, her teeth shining in the warm light of the museum. Tokyo moved her hands up to cup her jaw, looking into her eyes with a silent question of "may I?". Nairobi gave a small nod and closed her eyes, and Tokyo crossed the final distance between them. The first kiss was careful, hesitating, but as she pulled away and opened her eyes she saw the fire in Nairobi's eyes and her smile grew wide. Tokyo let out a small laugh, but Nairobi silenced it with her own lips, more hungry now, opening wider to let her in. Nairobi's arms snaked around her waist and she was pulled close. She could swear she felt both of their heartbeats, hammering away with the same rhythm. Their hands started wandering, tentatively pulling at zippers and buttons, but Nairobi pulled away breathlessly.
"Something wrong?" Tokyo asked. What if she had gone too far? Maybe Nairobi was straight? Had she really misread the signals all this time?
"No, no, no. Just... Not here. They could come back any moment," Nairobi said, looking past her at the hallway. Tokyo opened her mouth to protest, but Nairobi always had the power to read her ming. "Not the living people, dumbass. The other ghosts. If Berlín found us fucking in here we would never hear the end of it," she laughed. She was right.
"You're right," Tokyo agreed. "If you want to we could find an unoccupied office or something," she said, tracing the metal of Nairobi's zipper with her finger. She looked up from under her lashes, giving her best seductive smile, and Nairobi burst out in laughter, a laughter that was so infectious she joined in immediately, the seductive act promptly discarded.
"Later, okay?" Nairobi said, giving her a kiss that felt like a promise and a question. Tokyo melted into it, let her senses be consumed by the woman in front of her. Everything was Nairobi, Nairobi, Nairobi.
-
The roar of the machinery was almost drowned out by the cheers and screams of happiness as the financial security of Spain was pumped out through massive tubes. Tokyo and Nairobi watched as the living members of the gang embraced each other and tears of joy flowed freely. Tokyo saw Berlín, cheering with the rest of them, just like when Moscow first hit dirt in the Mint. She knew they couldn't see him, but something about Palermo's expression told her he knew he was there. In life she had never seen Berlín cry, not once, but the tears streaming down his face in that moment were the most honest thing she had ever seen from him.
Río stepped away from the crowd and took out his dog-tag. Tokyo walked towards him as he looked up, with his eyes red and a sad smile he said, "We did it, Tokyo." She nodded, for there was no answer needed, and no answer she could give either. She choked back a sob as Nairobi hugged her close, stroking her hair.
"He knows you're here. They know we're here with them," she whispered, and Tokyo let out an answer that turned into a sob in her mouth.
-
While the gang worked away in the forge, with Berlín and Moscow watching over them, Tokyo and Nairobi slipped away. They walked the long hallways of the Bank of Spain, where rows of gilded doors hid opulent offices, but they weren't just looking for any office. They approached the office of the Bank's president, the office where they had faced Gandía for the first time, the office where they met their first obstacle in the heist. The door was closed, but Tokyo had quickly learned that being a ghost had its perks, one of them being the ability to phase through objects at will. They couldn't open doors, but they could just as easily slip through them.
The office was a mess, with overturned tables and broken glass everywhere. "I wish we could at least sweep away some of this glass," Tokyo noted, trying to push away a piece of glass from the big wooden desk, but she couldn't move it. She pushed her finger through the shard a few times, enthralled by the light breaking through it as her finger disappeared inside the prism. She lifted herself up to sit on the desk and beckoned Nairobi to come over. She planted herself firmly between her legs, arms on either side of her body on the desktop. Tokyo draped her own arms over her shoulders and moved her face in close. They stayed like that, foreheads touching, in total silence, for a long time. Tokyo felt her breath, she felt her heartbeat, she felt her nerves firing in all direction, yet she knew she was dead. Nairobi tilted her head up to meet her lips in a slow kiss, cupping Tokyo's face with her hands. The kiss grew heated and Tokyo opened her mouth to let Nairobi in, her breath catching in her throat as she felt her teeth scrape against her bottom lip. Tokyo let her hands wander to the silver zipper on Nairobi's jumpsuit, slowly pulling it down without dislodging herself from the velvet softness of her mouth.
-
"I really didn't think ghosts could fuck," Tokyo laughed as she rested her head in Nairobi's lap. Nairobi sat with her back agains the massive desk, her hands idly playing with Tokyo's hair. She laughed, and Tokyo felt the rumble in the back of her head. "I'm glad to have been able to prove you wrong then," Nairobi said, twirling a short strand of black hair around her finger.
"Do you think we will disappear when they get out?" Nairobi asked, her hand stilling for a moment. Tokyo turned her head to look at her face. She didn't look sad, or distraught, just curious.
"I don't know, maybe," Tokyo shrugged. "Maybe we go to wherever the other three were between the heist. Maybe we'll be here forever. I think whatever happens happens, and..." she trailed off. She sat up and took both of Nairobi's hands in her own. "I think it's gonna be fine as long as you're there with me. When you died I felt lost; I thought I had blown my one chance at telling you how I really feel, but then I woke up from my own death and you were there. The universe gave me another chance, and that's more than I could have ever hoped for." She felt the warm tears run down her face, and Nairobi lifted her hands to wipe them away with her thumbs, stroking her cheeks gently.
-
The whole gang was kneeling on the floor in the bank's lobby, each with a gun pointed to their head.
Moscow was standing over Denver, hands fidgeting at his sides, overcome with the despair of having no way of turning away the gun pointed at the head of his only son. Oslo was talking to Helsinki in a hushed voice, saying something in Serbian Tokyo didn't understand, but Helsinki looked thoughtful. Maybe Oslo had managed to reach out across the void and tell his cousin that he was there with him, that he was not alone.
Berlín was kneeling on the floor in front of Palermo, forehead to forehead, despite neither of them being able to feel it. He was repeating something over and over, and though he would never admit it, Tokyo heard him say it. I love you. I love you. I love you, over and over again.
Nairobi was standing in a corner away from them all, chewing her nails and tapping her foot nervously. She had broken down in the middle of the floor, right where she died, she had screamed as loud as she could, surrounded by the living remnants of her friends, her family, desperately she had clawed at the soldiers, but her hands slipped right through. Tokyo had tried to comfort her, but she needed room to breathe, so Tokyo walked over to where Río was kneeling. He had never looked more like a lost child than right then, and she felt the guilt of ruining their life in paradise, and for what? A party and some drinks? They could have had a good life on the island, but she was never meant to grow old.
"Río, cariño, I know you can't hear me, but I need to tell you how sorry I am," she whispered. "You were supposed to have a long life, a good life, but I took that away from you. I- I want you to know that you have so much more to give and to gain from this life. You will be free, I promise. You just have to hold on."
-
Her guardian angel had done it again. The Professor had managed to secure their future, letting them be dead to the world, but with new lives waiting for them on the outside. Tokyo watched as Río was zipped into his bodybag, and she was overcome with joy and elation. This was to be the start of his new life.
Nairobi walked up beside her and held her hand tightly. Tokyo let her head fall onto her shoulder as together they watched their friends be wheeled out of the bank like corpses, like Nairobi's body had once been carried out of there, so were the rest of them now; only, they would get to wake up on the outside and start again.
When the last body was wheeled out of the bank she felt it again, the burning pain consuming her body, and the last thing she saw was the face of Nairobi, her best friend, her soulmate, as they both faded away for the last time. So, with tears in her eyes, and her heart full of love, Silene Oliveira died. For good.