Of Needles and Bugs
Chapter One: Let the Good Men Burn
If the world were made of flesh, the scar that Rotti Largo's death had left healed very quickly.
The founder of GeneCo did not mar the skin of the island with his demise. Even in dying, he wanted everyone to have anatomic excellence.
So he went quietly, mute and fading out on the floor of the Opera house.
Did we miss him?
Of course. But we miss our old eyes. Our old kidneys. Our old hearts.
We miss them, but we know they are faulty, and they must be replaced.
And so Rotti Largo was replaced.
Amber Sweet. Carmela Largo. Call her what you like. I certainly called her a lot of things, back when we had our thing.
That girl's dumb as a rock, though. Sorry to say it like that. But she is. Simple as that. Too many surgeries. Too much street Z.
So with a blow-up doll running our plastic and silicone world, we resumed things like normal.
Amber didn't change much. Repo Men still made sure the streets ran with blood. We still got sliced and stitched. Pavi and Luigi had plenty of meatheads running around doing the Largo's dirty work.
Surgery was stylish. Scalpels were sexy. Imperfection was unacceptable.
Rotti was not a scar. He was something much less important. A freckle. A sunspot.
Something that would gently irritate us and then vanish with a sigh.
…
The carpets were frayed and stained, the furniture threadbare. Paintings hung crookedly on walls, curtains fell from their hooks.
The entropy was refreshing.
"Shilo! Shilo!" A young girl's voice brought Shilo out of her assessment of the old Wallace house.
She looked up. Lilly and Oliver both ran towards her. Lilly clutched something small and white.
"What's the matter?"
"We found this outside." Lilly handed her the little furry thing and stepped back, watching for Shilo's reaction. Shilo held the newborn kitten in her arms. It was a precious, fragile thing. So young its eyes hadn't opened yet.
"Where's the mother?" she asked, gently stroking the top of its head.
"We couldn't find the mama." There was a mournful tinge to Lilly's youthful voice. Oliver toed the carpet sadly. He had been born without functioning vocal chords, and his parents had not wanted to risk a GeneCo replacement, for fear of the Repo Men coming for him. Lilly, his twin sister, acted as the voice of the two.
"Can we keep it, Shi?"
Shilo's eyes roamed over the foyer, at the half-empty bowls of cat and dog and rabbit food already littering the ground, the claw marks on the chairs, and the dozens of fluffballs scattered about. She sighed. "Yes. Yes, we can."
The kids' smiles erased any worries she might have had about the further cost of cat food, or having to clean up another litter box.
…
Smack it.
Graverobber's needle sank into the corpse's skull.
Just gotta smack it.
There was that always-satisfying sucking noise, and the pleasing blue of Zydrate filling the vial.
He grinned and pocketed the glass tube, tucking the needle gun into his coat. Stepping gingerly over the corpse, he sank to the ground, propping his back up against a gravestone.
This place brings back memories. Used to be my biggest Z pipeline. All those fuckin' corpses piling in all the time. I missed it.
It had been two years. Two years of ducking through holes and squeezing into cracks and hiding beneath piles of ghastly-smelling corpses.
Two years since Rotti Largo had croaked.
Graverobber sighed and smiled lazily, like a cat in a sunny spot. Even sitting in the middle of a graveyard, hungry, tired and freezing his ass off was better than the alternative; namely, running from Amber and her goons.
The infamous Largo princess had gotten it into her head that she could make him into some sort of pet–something to keep around and play with when it suited her.
And, naturally, he would be a free, discreet way to get her Zydrate.
When he had refused (by way of stabbing one of her guards in the jugular with his needle gun and running like a girl out of Rotti's old office, call it what you will), Amber had not taken the rejection well.
What Amber wanted, Amber got.
Well, sorry to disappoint you, princess.
He stretched, feeling his body unfurl and relax. His bones made audible cracking sounds.
Crack. Crack. Click.
Graverobber froze. The click came from somewhere behind him. He turned in time to see a GeneCop rise from behind the headstone he had been relaxing against.
Shit.
He launched himself to his feet and began running, vaulting over gravestones like he had always done. The sound of footfalls behind him alerted him to the GeneCop's pursuit. It sounded like there was only one, which was good.
The clicking sound filled his ears again, and Graverobber dove behind a headstone just as a gunshot rang out.
A moment later, the pain hit him. He sank his teeth into his bottom lip to avoid moaning aloud and clamped a hand on his shoulder, where blood had already begun soaking into his shirt. All the while, he listened for footsteps.
They were coming closer, getting louder by the moment. Graverobber's other hand went into his coat.
The GeneCop rounded the corner, and he threw himself forward, yanking the needle gun out of his jacket. The cop fell to the ground and Graverobber sank the needle into his neck.
Gasping, the GeneCop clawed at his throat, blood bubbling up and out of his mouth. Graverobber grabbed the cop's gun and pressed it against his temple. With the bullet in his shoulder, it took him a couple of tries to pull the trigger, but he managed it, quickly putting an end to the GeneCop's suffering.
When the cop had stopped twitching, Graverobber stood up, one hand still clutching his throbbing shoulder. He could feel his fingers going numb as he staggered to the edge of the graveyard, to where the larger family tombs lay.
Please, please still be here…
…
"And then what happened?"
Shilo laughed as she closed the book. "What do you think happened, silly?" With one finger, she tapped the bridge of Hannah's freckly nose. "They lived happily after."
"Oh." Hannah's large eyes were nearly crossed with the effort of making sense of the story. Shilo kissed her on the forehead.
"Good night."
"G'night, Shilo."
"Good night," she said to Damian, Molly, Azura, Theo, Oliver and Lilly, kissing each of them on their brows.
For Mr. Fluff, Pumpkin, Ginger, Peaches, Fattycakes and the rest of the animals, she stroked behind ears and smoothed her hand over furry backs.
Satisfied that everyone had been bade a goodnight, she stood in the doorway of what had once been her bedroom and watched the children fondly.
Gone were the plastic sheets that surrounded her bed. The medical equipment had been cleared out, as had the rather sinister-looking skeleton model. Shilo's bug collection had been thrown out, because she tired of trapped specimens and collections.
Instead, little children lay asleep on the four-poster, and on mattresses on the floor. Cats and dogs and mice dozed contentedly in their owners' arms.
It was far from the austere, sterile house she had grown up in, with only her fathers' love and the fake fireplace warming the rooms.
Shilo shut the door to the bedroom, making her way downstairs to curl up in front of the fireplace. The newborn kitten dozed on the floor by the hearth, small, sleepy breaths making Shilo grin. She watched it for awhile, marveling in the simple happiness a newborn kitten brought into the world.
And then she heard a sinister-sounding clunk, coming from the door by the staircase.
The door that led out to her mother's tomb.
Shilo held her breath and picked up the kitten, holding it protectively to her chest. With her other hand, she grabbed the antique rifle she always left leaning against the fireplace in case of break-ins (and there were plenty of those).
The door rattled on its hinges. Shilo's heart hammered in her chest. Who could it be? One of the Largos? GeneCops? A Repo Man?
After a few more moments of struggle, the door swung open to reveal a tall, long-haired man in a bloody coat. His eyes–wide and bluish-green–fell upon her and his black lips opened.
"Ki–Kid?"
Shilo almost dropped the kitten. "Graverobber?" she said, her voice rising an octave from the shock.
He nodded weakly, took a step forward, and fell to the ground.
A/N: So, whaddya thank? My first Repo! fanfic. God I love this movie. And I would have many kinds of sex with the Graverobber.
So please read and review! For every review, Graverobber will take off his shirt and Pavi and Luigi will interpretive dance!