The Prologue

Author's Note: As with all fanfiction, I sadly do not own a damn thing but a big, huge, roach-infested thanks to Terrance Zdunich(Z-Dew-Nitch... or something like that. What the hell do I know? I'm Midwestern and can't say shit right anyway) and Darren Smith. You guys are fucking amazing. Anyway, this little bit is mostly to set the scene up and I've also been doing a rapingly crazy ammount of revising.

I'd also like to beg the readers to please fargin' review? I'll give you cookies? With Zydrate? It's like crack, but only more future-y

He leaned back on the headstone, silently reflecting. The King, Rotti Largo- and, damn, he was the King, if only of this godforsaken island but a king none the less- was dead and the girl, Shilo… She had all but disappeared. Amber. That Fucking Amber. Hateful and vindictive bitch that she was… GeneCO was in her grubby, Z-addicted paws now and she didn't need him anymore. Not when she had all the Z she could ever want. Luigi was on a rampage, not better than a rabid dog. And rabid dogs are bad dogs… Bad dogs need to be kicked. Luigi needs to be kicked. Hm, hard, preferably. In the balls. And Pavi? Pavi was a hot damn mess. One he didn't want to even think about. Another rabid dog that ought to get kicked. Preferably hard and in the balls.

That night at the opera had been the talk of the town for weeks. And news of Shilo Wallace seemed to be spreading like a wild fire through the city.

Chapter 1

Prove It!

Amber lolled lazily in her chair behind her father's desk. Late father's desk. His funeral had been last week. Mourners had lined the streets and filled the graveyard; Amber hadn't known a damn one of them. She suspected her father hadn't either. Mag's had been only yesterday. No one went to that one.

AMBER: "Ah, ah, ah, ah

Oh, oh, oh ,oh

What was Daddy thinking?"

LUIGI: "I bet Pop'd been drinking!"

AMBER: "Ah, ah, ah, ah

Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh

I don't know what

The Hell she was trying to plan

But I want her fucking head!"

LUIGI: "I'll kill her dead!"

PAVI: "I want her pretty face"

AMBER/ LUIGI (in unison): "Know your place, brother!"

PAVI: "Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

You need to learn yours!

Sister, flaunting your airs!-"

AMBER: "You're wearing my face!"

PAVI (undeterred): "Brother, allowing your anger

To control your every move-"

LUIGI/ AMBER(clearly angered) : "PROVE IT!"

PAVI: "Father would disapprove of it

Mother woud-"

LUIGI(indignant): "She ain't my ma'!"

PAVI (spritz-ing his colgne, glancing in his mirror) :

"Prove it, prove it, prove it

Brother, Sister!

Please, please, permit me-"

AMBER: "Ah, ah,

Oh, oh

No, no,

Get out!

You useless piece of-!" Her voice dropped away as Pavi vanished, his trio GENterns right behind him. Which face is next, brother?

Now, her mind, slightly muddled by her already enormous addiction to Z, shifted now to other matters. Graverobber, Graverobber, sometimes I wonder why I ever bothered? Images of him flashed in her mind. She wanted him now more than anything. Stupid fucking man. I hate that bastard. Well, she was supposed to anyway. She didn't; they had… well, whatever-ed for so long that his absence left her cold and empty and lonely. Her sparkling, blue gaze shifted over to Luigi. He wore more of a sneer than a smile on his face. His gloved- always gloved- hands brushed across her face and through her hair, tugging as he went.

Time for some wicked fun.

XOXOXO

Shura awoke slowly, as though coming out of an anesthesia. Her solemn brown eyes were only half-opened, barely registering that she wasn't in her own apartment. Stretching lazily, back arching seductively. She yawned and opened her eyes fully. The light struck her harshly and her eyes snapped shut again. With a small sigh, she slowly opened her eyes and found the light less brutal. She wasn't anywhere she recognized. Very quickly, she gathered her things and headed out the door, one boot on.

"A means to an end…" she mumbled on her way out. He had watched her go, with a twinge in his chest that he hadn't felt in awhile. What she said hadn't gone unheard either. He silently agreed with her. A means to an end was right. He peered out of his window and watched her disappeared through the gathering crowd.

SHURA: "A means to an end

A way for us to live

A way to survive the night

Each, each of us searching

For the light

Each, each of us reaching

For someone's hand.

Because, because we can hardly stand

On our own two feet.

And we all know it

None of us will show it.

'Cause, it's just a means to an end

Swarming around like roaches

GeneCO still our godsend

Still tightening the nooses.

Still tightening our nooses… "

XOXOXO

A Graverobber's Diversion. Shura's Story

The first time he met her, she had been seven and he had just gotten "started". He'd been initiated, confirmed, and other such nonsense and was ready for business. Her mother had brought her with her and he had considered not selling to the woman at all but he did. She was out of it for a long time. Longer than usual. The seven year-old girl with honey-blonde hair and fine, golden brows introduced herself as Shura and asked too many questions for his liking. He hadn't answered a damn one.

He knew it from somebody who knew it from someone else that her father was dead. Had his heart repo'd and the condition apparently ran in the family. He'd seen the little girl Shura clutch at her chest briefly before her mother carried her off.

He saw her again. Seven years later. At fourteen, she'd already had her heart replaced. Courtesy of GeneCO, of course. She was, shivering and scared and alone.

"Where's you ma' at, kid?," he had asked and she had just looked up with wide, sad eyes. Shook her head and blundered on passed him. It was nearly uncharacteristic of him but he reached out and grabbed her as she went by him. "She dead, kid?"

Shura nodded once. "R-r-r-repo'd."

SHURA: "He came like a thief

Left me with nuthin' but grief

Ripped her implants right fucking out

Didn't even have time to shout

Just left her laying about

Oh, God! There was so much blood!

Oh, God! It was like a flood!

I'm covered in it!

What's all this, then?"

Then, he'd allowed her a respite in his dumpster. Not his home and not too terribly comfortable. It had been brief at best. She was gone in the morning anyway.

He had run into her again in a few years and she was seventeen and, god, she'd been beautiful, even if she didn't know it. She had smiled up at him and he felt apart of himself go with her as she took her first hit. The Glow and did she ever glow? As she moaned softly, he knelt down and pressed his lips to hers, leaving a smear of black. Her pupils had dilated with a heady rush of lust and Z. She had grabbed him, pressed him closer and he had taken her there in the alleyway.

She had disappeared almost immediately afterward. Good thing too, that was. He wasn't known for being cuddly. Then, she'd come back to him after a while, as all addicts did. She had lasted longer than he thought she would have. Because all it ever took was one hit really. That had been enough for her.

XOXOXO

It hadn't been enough for her. She had wanted more. Couldn't take much more but wanted it anyway. With sober tread, she made her way back to her own apartment. Her bleary eyes scanned the room quickly and found her son sleeping peacefully in her bed. She went over to him and wrapped him a tight hug. He was ten now and looked every damn bit like his father. Brown hair. Twinkling, blue eyes. Long, strong nose. Alas, he couldn't escape his heredity either. Father's looks, mother's heart condition. Which was why he was still in bed.

"Mum.," he greeted her in a voice thick with sleep.

"Shh, Haddox, just go back to bed; you need to rest." Her own heart was only just fully paid for and that had taken ten-maybe eleven-years to do that. She barely had the money to keep them both and usually she went with out. And then there was the Z. Damn it and fuck it! She hated that drug. She wished she could kick it some way.

SHURA: "Sh, Sh, Sh, my son

Soon you'll be able to run

To do all things boys your age

Can do, not locked in this cage

Sh, sh, sh, little boy

One day soon you'll jump for joy

Instead of dying here

Instead of lying here

Sh, sh, sh, love

My plans for you

Won't go undreamed of-"

SON: "Mum?"

Shura cupped his face in her hands, smiled down at him.

SHURA: "You'll do everything I never could've

Go to lengths I never would've

Do the things I always should've

But for now, you should get back in bed

Everything else should be left unsaid" She kissed his forehead. Tucked him back into bed as though he were much younger. Her thoughts immediately turned to the Graverobber. She'd thought about him a rather lot lately. Perhaps he knew something.

She tracked him back to the alley he normally dealt in. Found him leaning against the dumpster, a scalpel slut in front of him. Go figure.

SHURA: "Jesus fucking christ, lady

Have a little dignity

You won't get treated differently

When you're on your knees.

At least, I hope, he said please?

Please, get off your knees

And get the hell away from him!"

Shura's face was like a stone. Hard and it revealed nothing of the glee she felt to see the scalpel slut scurrying away.

GRAVEROBBER: "Scurrying and scurrying

You've always sent them scattering

Always been so flattering."

Sarcasm laces his baritone voice and Shura found it impossible to hide her wicked grin. "Who do you think you are?

Showing everyone every damn internal scar?"

He moved closer. Held his body tight against her. She felt his erection pressed to her thigh. "I know… I know… I know what

What you want, what you need

You're gonna bleed

Before I'm through

With you…"

Shura sneered, eyes glittering like small, angry pinpoints. Rolling her eyes, she shoved him away but it did little to actually move him at all. He backed away slowly, cocky smirk gracing his features. He turned away and ambled out of the alleyway. Shura grimaced and took off after him.