There was a cool wind off the sea that swept up the road between the rocks and tousled Fara's hair. She could see Boardwalk ahead, spreading out between the trees and the massive grey rocks that emerged from the water.
She glanced behind her, but the taxi had already flown away, becoming a spot in the sky.
Have I made a mistake? she thought; I should have bought better shoes. I should've paid the driver extra to fly me in closer so I wouldn't have to walk all this way.
Beside her a wave crashed up on the rocks, white spray flying up overhead, startling some birds into the air. She watched the light filter through the water, watched the wave flash back down and drench the rock.
She knew, behind the two largest mountains rearing up from the ocean, was the rest of the town, battered and smashed to pieces from whatever firepower Venom launched against it. Here, though, where the town nestled along the coast and around the coast-side of the mountains, most of the buildings were still intact.
She walked the rest of the way down and passed along under the shadow of the massive rocks, and again into sunlight, where the market stirred and hummed around her.
Still early, she thought; he won't be here for some time.
She walked out from the market, down to the beach, where she sat and stared out at the grey waves. Every night, she'd been told, a fog would roll off the sea and engulf Boardwalk, turning the rocks and the town into a cloud of nothing.
What an excellent concept, she thought; fading away into a mist of water particles.
She must have dozed off; when she blinked next the sun was low on the horizon, and red strands of colour were bleeding out over the sky, a blazing gold encompassing reds and purples and blues.
And sure enough, a grey mist was rising around her off the waves; unfurling its fingers and swimming up the rocks towards the town. I wonder what the science here is, she thought; is it because of the way the rocks are? Something to do with air pressure?
She stood up, and heard someone touch down on the beach behind her. When she looked, she only caught a glimpse before the fog swept up and stole her vision of the beach away from her -- a stern yellow eye and an eye-patch.
Wolf?
She stepped back, almost considering fleeing, heading back to town. But she came all the way out from Corneria City -- she wasn't about to turn back down.
Besides, the sun was stealing beneath the ocean now, and dark blue and wispy stars were taking over the night. A glow in the fog drew her attention.
It was lantern light -- a hood beacon hanging off the prow of a ship plunging through the fog onto the beach.
Fara shivered. There was no sound save for the sound of the beachheads, the straining of the ship, and the rustle of the trees in the distance.
A voice cut through the fog: "Fara Phoenix, how delightful to see you again. How is Fox and the others?"
Fara sniffed. "Wouldn't know. Haven't talked to them in a while."
"Ah," the voice said, "but my eyes can see that you have talked at great length with someone recently. How far are you? Three months?"
Fara touched her belly, and nodded. "Sure. Something like that. Listen, I came all this way because you-- you said you wanted to show me something."
Twin glistening yellow eyes emerged from the fog. "Yes. So. Why then would you come?"
"Because I wanted to." She felt uncomfortable now, here alone on the beach in the dark. "Not like there was much for me in Corneria, right?"
"Forgotten. Like me."
She laughed. "You're not forgotten. You're still on every major wanted list in the galaxy."
"Then why am I still at large then?"
"So?"
"I want you to say the words?"
"Awful lot of strings attached to this offer."
"Some. I value your skills, certainly, but I do have my little eccentricities."
"Murdering?"
"Worse than that, I suppose. I'm a terrible poet at times."
"So what words?"
"I want you to say, 'Leon, take me with you'."
"Am I sure that's what I want?"
"You most certainly better be."
"Leon-"
"Yes?"
The hand snatched hers and yanked her bad and she fell onto the beach, hurting her shoulder. The figure emerged from the fog, a pistol flipping up into his hand. The laser shots turned the fog-world around her crimson, and she shouted, "Wolf! Goddamn it-!"
Too late -- Leon's ship backed out, and she could hear its engines roar as it shot off into the sky.
"Damn it, damn it," she said, struggling to her feet. A voice in her head said, The baby, is the baby okay?
The figure next to her fired off two shots into the sky, then, with a strangled growl, picked up a rock from the beach and hurled it up out into the ocean. "Leon!" he shouted.
Then, as if spent, Wolf sat down on the beach and feverishly began checking his pistol.
Fara stared at him and said, with a shaky voice, "Fox knows I'm here."
"No he doesn't," Wolf said quietly, holstering his pistol and getting to his feet. He stepped forwards, lifted a hand to the air, as if about to make a point. "I recommend-" he began, the stopped. "No, I suggest that of all the careers to choose, vengeance is not the most rewarding. Tinkerbell."
A bright light flashed out of his coat and swirled around him, giggling.
"Track that bastard," Wolf said, turning around and tramping up the beach. "Get me a name of a port, a database, a sighting, anything."
"Can do!" the bright light said gleefully.
Wolf paused on the beach and turned around to look at Fara. "Tell me," he said, "of all people, why Leon?"
"He offered," Fara said, glaring at him.
"Really?" Wolf said. "The life of a war criminal is a life of poverty."
"It'd be a change."
He glanced down at her and said, "Whose is that?"
Really? she thought; is that all I can muster from him? Indifference? "Go away, Wolf," she said.
As he vanished into the fog, she turned around and sat down heavily on the ground. From her purse she produced a cell phone and soon she was listening to an electronic voice inform her that Fox was not in his conapt, and in fact, she didn't have the clearance to know his current whereabouts.
I can't believe he took me off his system, she thought.
"Please leave a message."
"Uh, Fox, yeah, hi, it's Fara -- yeah, long time no talk. Listen I really--" The sound of the beachheads crashing against the rocks got to her and she stumbled back, and for a moment she felt like she was still in her cramped windowless conapt staring at her latest military pension cheque on her little table.
The cellphone spun through the air and flew into the water with a splash.
When she turned around Wolf was standing there.
"C'mon," he said. "I'll buy you something to eat."
He didn't wait for a reply, but rather wandered up back into the fog.
At first she considered just standing there on the beach for how many hours it took for daylight to come, just to spite him.
But she was hungry, so she tramped up the beach to follow him.