-I'm neglecting my Doctor Who fic for this one, which both makes me very happy and irritates me, because I watch the new episodes and think OMG THAT WOULD BE SO AWESOME IN MY STORY and then the inspiration dies and I wind up back here with Furnace Boy and the Girl With A Thousand Names.
-Yes, some more time has passed than it seems. But their little tasks take a bit of time here and there.
-I really like this one. Just putting that out there.
W'P
Quote: "We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey." -Kenji Miyazawa
Listen to: "Animal," Neon Trees (Here we go again, we're sick like animals we play pretend, you're just a cannibal and I'm afraid I won't get out alive…)
-o-
2January, 1959
Kiki was curled up on her sofa, gripping her 9mm pistol with painful force. Outside her flat, she could hear people rioting in the halls below. Occasionally, someone would run through the corridor, past her flat. About half the time, they were screaming. She knew they were Splicers. The radio was on, and the transmissions alternated between Ryan, and Atlas hacking in.
She hadn't seen Susanne since the Battle of the Kashmir, as it had come to be known. That worried her; Susanne came by what felt like every day. She prayed to God that she was alive, but these days, she wasn't sure if even He was reliable anymore. If He was, why would He let this happen?
Kiki jumped as someone banged on her door. They didn't want to be let in; it was a Splicer doing it for the fear tactics. Her breath coming in fast, terrified pants, Kiki pulled the pistol closer. Quietly, so very quietly so no one would hear her, she began to cry.
-o-
"No. I'm fine."
"You're not."
"I am! Can barely feel it."
"Don't make me undress you."
"Oh-ho, touché, love. Touché. Yes, fine, over here." Kiki walked over to a small alcove between two pillars and sat with a grit of her teeth, pain prickling up her back. Jack turned away and she took off her shirt, crumpled it up and laid on it with her back up. "Okay, doctor, go crazy." Jack made a noise of disapproval. "What, does it really look that bad?"
"There's a lot of debris." He replied. There were some tinkering sounds as he took out bandaging and a pair of tweezers, sitting next to her and tuning his radio into a channel that miraculously still played music, although grainy and faint, a male, crooning voice could be made out. "This is going to hurt."
"Ow! Bloody hell…" Kiki grumbled, gritting her teeth.
"I told you." Jack plucked another splinter from behind her shoulder blade, and got a subsequent kick in the shoulder. "Hey!"
"Oops." Kiki looked over her shoulder and winced at Jack, who was grumpily rubbing his arm. "Sorry, that one really hurt." Jack waved a hand, not really that bothered, and with a piece of bandaging dabbed away the dribble of blood that leaked from the puncture wound.
Kiki started to curl up, an instinctive reaction to the pain, but Jack pressed his hand on her back to keep her lying flat. "Stay still." He instructed firmly as he pulled out a fragment of cement large enough that it took some muscle with it. "You should be happy nothing hit your spine."
"Fuck, that hurts." She hissed, burying her face between her arms, folded in front of her and let out a sob without tears. "Silas Cobb, rot in hell. Why did I have to get all the rubbish in my back?"
Jack removed bits of poster paper and wood from her skin and tapped them off the pinchers. "You were closer to the bomb," He dripped a tiny amount of water on her back to rinse the wounds. "And in front of me."
"You're welcome, then." Kiki grumbled, turning her head to speak over her arms. She felt Jack's fingers brush away a bit of blood, lingering slightly on her skin. "You know, I think you're enjoying this too much." She muttered.
"Serves you right, you know." He replied, carefully removing paper fibres from an open cut.
"Serves me right! Why? I took the brunt of that bleeding bomb."
"You should've watched your step. Then we wouldn't be here in the first place."
"You're feeling awfully talkative." Kiki directed the topic away from the fact that he was right. "I'm running out of fingers—ow!"
"Sorry, that was pretty far in there." Jack flicked away a long, sharp chip of cement. "What do you mean, 'out of fingers'?"
"I've sort of been counting how many words you say in one sitting. Last record was six, which you've since—ouch—beaten. I'm running out of fingers to count on."
"Ha." Jack said, amused. "Find something to bite."
Kiki stuffed part of her shirt into her mouth and bit down just as Jack rubbed the shallow wounds down with alcohol. She spat and cursed into her shirt, clenching her hands tightly in the fabric, tears brimming in her eyes. Finally, mercifully, Jack gave her a dose of ADAM to drink, which she slugged down in record time, healing over the cuts and the tiny patch of burned skin from the Splicer that had grabbed her earlier.
"That was just bad." Kiki groaned, sitting up and holding her shirt up. "Nothing about that was good." She pulled a chip of wood from the back of her thigh. "In my legs too, but I think you've undressed me enough for one day." She smirked at Jack, who looked away, getting his cue as Kiki pulled her shirt back on. She buttoned it up, the back feeling a little breezier due to all the holes.
"Ugh." She scooted back to lean against the wall, rubbing her eyes. "I'm not enjoying hunting these bastards down. Haven't slept for…" She counted on her fingers. "80 hours as of six minutes ago."
Jack smiled and moved to sit next to her, loading his machine gun. Kiki leaned out and shot a trap bolt over the entrance to the alcove, leaving an electrocuted wire that would kill any curious Splicers. "So you're doing what, keeping guard?" Jack nodded at Kiki's question. "All right. But don't you dare let me sleep more than a couple hours." She yawned and crossed her arms, drifting off as Jack's radio spluttered on.
"You flutter all about the Fort, taking life as you go…" The artist hummed. "You aren't insects…you're angels. I've never painted an angel before…maybe I should…"
-o-
"Ah!" Kiki woke with a start, shaking slightly. Images of burning men and people frozen in ice, avenging angels with butterfly wings and blonde women with faces like rabbit-human hybrids vanished from behind her eyelids. "God dammit…" She leaned into the soft, very warm wall and tried to fall back to sleep. "Wait…" Kiki looked up to see Jack watching her with a wary expression. There was a pause. "How long have I been out?"
Jack checked his watch. "Six hours."
"Six hours! Why didn't you wake me up? What time is it?"
"I fell asleep too. And it's…" He checked his watch again. "Five in the morning."
"Oh." Kiki drummed her fingers on his side, her arms still wrapped around his torso in a hug. "So…we should probably go find Kyle before he escapes, huh?" She sighed and dropped her head back on Jack's arm over her shoulders. "But you're so cosy! If you weren't a professional jumper-wearer you could make a killing in the market as a blanket."
Jack chuckled and stood, getting a mutter from a now relatively cold Kiki. He pulled the trap bolt from the wall and handed it, now safe, back to Kiki. She put it on her belt and stood, wincing at the couple splinters still in her legs.
"I wonder if his hands have frozen off yet." She mused wistfully as they walked back through the frozen hall. "That would be nice."
"Six hours? Possibly." Jack put his arm back around her and rubbed her shoulder.
"Hey, I'm not that cold." Kiki defended. "I grew up in England, I'm used to crap weather." Jack shrugged and removed his arm, only to get it snatched back. "Never mind, freezing cold. Stay close, Furnace Boy."
They walked back into the atrium, keeping a wary eye out. The Splicers seemed to have moved their attention to the Plaza. Kyle was slumped against the stage, sleeping. The ice around his hands and ankles were now just fragile strips that could be broken by simply moving.
"Looks like he's been behaving." Kiki observed, walked up to him. She kicked his leg and Kyle jolted awake with a yell, also breaking the ice binds.
"Gah! Jesus, what do you…oh. Finally remember I was here, did you?" Kyle sneered. He looked down at his hands and cried out in panic. "Oh my god! What did you do to my hands?"
The skin of his arms was swollen and red, bulging around blackened, spotty dead patches around his wrists. Pulling up his trouser legs, the same was evident on his ankles.
"Oops." Kiki said remorselessly.
"Oops! Oops?" Kyle snapped, standing on shaky legs. "That's all you can say is oops?" He raised his hand like he was going to hit her, but the lightning fast drawing of a pistol stopped him.
"I wouldn't." Kiki growled, pressing the barrel to his neck, facing up his jaw. She pulled the hammer back and rested her finger on the trigger. "I really wouldn't."
Kyle wobbled on injured legs and stumbled back to sit on the stage, holding up a hand. "Okay, okay, relax. We're good."
"No we're not. Shut up." Kiki handed the picture of the dead Cobb to Jack, who stepped up on the stage to place it in the next frame up. He gave the macabre masterpiece a slightly disgusted look, which Kiki shared in a glance with him.
"Half way done…what's that look?" Cohen suddenly snapped from the radio. "You don't like it, do you? I don't need to be judged by you…by anyone! Screw you! Screw all you fucking doubters! Here's what I say to all of you!"
The lights on all the neon signs turned dark red, making the atrium considerably dimmer. There was silence for a moment, and then music started up, blaring through the large hall in a somewhat random manner.
"Um…is that Tchaikovsky?" Kiki pointed up and nodded with the other two. "Yeah, that's not good. Well, it's good, and really beautiful, but a little disconcerting. Oh, you know what I mean."
The Splicers dropped in from nowhere. One second the three were alone, the next, they were being bombarded by crazed drug addicts. Four of the things were on them unprepared, standing by the stage and more were running in from the shadows under the second floor balcony. Jack hit one with Electro Bolt, freezing him to the spot. Kiki yelled out and shot a Spider with the crossbow, running back to get some breathing air.
"Fly away, little moth!" Cohen screamed. "FLY!"
Dust began puffing up from the walls, Spiders digging up the plaster with their hooks and gunshots roaring along the tiles. "What do I do?!" Kyle yelled at the fighting couple helplessly, dodging a swing from a female Thug.
"Fight, you fucking idiot!" Kiki bellowed back, shooting another with the crossbow, twisting and pulling her pistol out to blast an oncoming Splicer in the chest. "Jack, your four o'clock!" Jack turned and the shotgun boomed with a fleshy squelch, a cracking of bones and thumping of a body hitting the floor.
"Where did all these fuckers come from?" Kiki yelled rhetorically. "Not so fast!" She threw out a hand in Kyle's general direction and froze his legs as he was trying to make a break for it. She chuckled and turned, shooting the first thing that moved.
"Mrghghrhgh!" The Big Daddy groaned angrily, the circular holes in the diving helmet turning an ominous red to match the rest of the room.
"Come on!" Kiki slumped for a moment, cursing her luck, but popped back up again as the Daddy took a swipe at her with his drill. "That was close. Jumper, a little help would be appreciated!"
"Busy!" Jack shot a few Splicers, all of which kept getting up and coming at him again.
Kiki got a sudden sense of déjà vu. She barely dodged another swing from the Daddy, but was unable to move fast enough to avoid his charge. Lights flashed behind her eyes and pain lashed up her middle like a burning whip, but she got up again and shot the Daddy with Winter Storm, freezing him. She switched her plasmid to Incinerate and promptly roasted the guy, although it seemed to do little. The Daddy didn't just keel over like the Splicers; the flames barely affected him. Kiki made a snap decision and crawled onto the Daddy like a ginger spider, clutching his huge diving helmet. He flailed around, trying to throw her off. Kiki pressed her pistol to a glass seeing hole in the helmet and shot through. The Big Daddy made a horrible screaming noise of pain, increasing his efforts to get her off.
"Jack!" Kiki cried, holding on for dear life.
"Busy!" Jack flat-out punched a Splicer in the face, waggling his hand and shooting at others running at him.
"Seriously!" Kiki snapped, her focus wavering. The Daddy threw her off, his hand tight on her arm as he hurled her at the closest wall.
Her vision went out for a moment as her head struck the wall, but Kiki managed to get back up and aim her crossbow. She and the Daddy were both seriously injured, but she would be fucked if she didn't have the last laugh. Kiki shot him with the bow right through the chest, and the bolt had enough barbed damage to kill him dead.
"Christ, finally." She gasped and hunched over, trying to get her breath. The Little Sister he had been with suddenly screamed in realisation of what had happened and rushed up to her protector. Kiki scooped her up, seeing that the wave of Splicers had nearly ended now, and made half-hearted, tired shushing noises as she carried the girl to Jack.
Jack, having just taken care of the rest of the Splicers, turned and picked the Sister up. The air began to glow white like before, as well as his veins. The girl's head lolled back and she spasmed once before he set her down. The girl ran away, thanking Jack profusely.
"I will never get over that." Kiki fumbled for a vial of ADAM. Jack simply shrugged, like it was no big deal. "No, you don't get it. They were like that before the War, too, and it was bad then. It's worse now. Seeing them is like seeing ghosts. And you bring those girls back, it's like…like waking from a nightmare." She wiped a bit of ADAM from the side of her mouth, the double vision going away and the limp in her walk disappearing. "Except we don't, do we?"
Kyle was sprawled on the ground, face smushed onto the filthy floor and feet frozen in a large block of ice. "Mind letting me out, sweetheart?" He mumbled.
"I would mind, actually. No more breaks for it while we're busy." Kiki snapped him out with Incinerate.
"Sorry if I was running for my life." Kyle grumbled, standing up and holding his injured arms.
"Shut up, there was nothing near you. And once we get the picture of Rodriguez I'm going to be killing you anyway so there's no use trying." Kiki took a length of rope from her handy-dandy utility belt and moved toward him. Kyle made like he was going to move, but in her other hand she aimed her pistol, and Kyle grudgingly stayed still. Kiki tied his arms and legs where the ice burn was, making it even harder for him to break free. "You're welcome."
"I'm sorry that little outburst." Cohen sounded tired over the radio, even genuinely apologetic. "You'll have to forgive an old fool his artistic temperament. The birth is so close now. The labor pains can blur the judgment and drive the passions of even the finest spirits."
"Ew." Kiki muttered. "Okay, Jack, let's just find the next bloke and get out of the Fort before I'm sick."
"You'll find that Hector favored Eve's Garden, my red butterfly." Cohen said helpfully. "Find him, and continue my quadtych."
"Ah, Eve's Garden." Kiki sighed dryly, leading the way through the frozen tunnel again. Jack once again put his arm over her. "The former abode of the lovely miss Jasmine Jolene. At least, it was. Last I heard, she was dead."
They made their way through the Plaza, staying on the ground floor where the Splicers were fewer. It was the same level as the Garden anyway. A security camera was watching over the second half of the Plaza, after the stairs to the top floor cut off. Kiki sidled along the wall and, using her shotgun, blasted it into scrap metal. They kept on, turning down the hall to the Garden. The bright, glowing 'V' in the word 'Eve's' lit up under the pink, smoky lights. Three little x's were under the title of the brothel.
There was a tobacconist's shop about half the way down the hall, which Kiki turned into first. "Always loved the smell of tobacco." She commented as she walked through the still mildly humid aisles. "Reminds me of my father. Do you smoke?"
"Occasionally." Jack answered, checking the darker corners.
"You didn't strike me as the type." Kiki lowered her crossbow. "Well, doesn't look like there's anyone in here. To the Garden we go."
They walked back out and down the hall to Eve's Garden. Front and centre was a small stage with a couple poles and pink lights. To the left was a bar and a staircase up to the second floor. There was no one in sight.
"Well, I guess we should look around." Kiki walked onto the stage and to the back, where she opened a door. "This goes backstage. Maybe he's back here." She went in first, with Jack following. The hall was small and cramped, with a low ceiling and peeling magenta wallpaper. It turned once right and ended at a door to what was probably a bedroom.
Jack suddenly stopped, staring at the door. Kiki turned when she saw he wasn't following. "You all right, Jumper?" He didn't respond. It was like he couldn't hear her, and was seeing something no one else could. "Jack?" Kiki walked back to him and, after a moment, put a hand on his shoulder.
Instantly, she could hear it. A woman's voice, crying. "I didn't know Fontaine had something to do with it…I—no—what are you doing?!" Kiki looked to the door as well, where she could now see a light shining through the bottom, and shadows like feet on the other side. "No, please, don't—I love you, darling—no, please, no—no!"
The screaming faded away and the light went out under the door. Jack shook his head like he'd seen a ghost. Kiki blinked furiously, running a hand down her face. "What in the hell was that?" She muttered.
"It's happened a couple times." Jack replied as quietly.
"What is it? I knew her; that was Jasmine Jolene, the lead exotic dancer here in the Garden." Kiki said, stepping toward the door. "I think we just heard her get murdered. Did she say anyone's name before I tapped in on that?"
Jack nodded. "Ryan."
Kiki stopped and looked at him, her mind struggling to put the pieces together. It was like she was trying to put together a puzzle, but didn't have a picture to tell her what it would look like.
"Interesting." She murmured, regarding Jack. "Very interesting." And with that she opened the door to the bedroom.
The place was a mess. Empty bottles of various alcohols laid around the floor, some smashed apart. There were rips and stains on a cartoon poster advertising Jasmine. The usual debris like chunks of stone sat around the room. A square of bluish light shone down through the ceiling of the room, illuminating the bed like a spotlight. The ocean stretched up above. And on the bed, splayed out like a vile angel spattered in blood, was a rotting corpse in dancer's clothes.
"Jasmine." Kiki walked into the room and was hit with the stench of death and disease. Jack faltered upon walking inside, as well, but had no other problems. Under the bed was a generous stack of cash and an audio recording, both of which Kiki grabbed and on the latter, played.
The tape started up with a click. "That creepy Dr Tenenbaum promised me it wasn't gonna to be a real pregnancy..." Jasmine whimpered. "They'd just take the egg out once Mr Ryan and I had…I needed the money so bad…but I know Mr Ryan's gonna suss it out, gonna know I wasn't being careful…gonna know I sold the…Mr Ryan's gonna be so mad at me…"
"Hmm." Kiki rubbed her chin and glanced at Jack as she set the tape down. "Any other weird visions that could help explain this? Anything?"
"When I walked in…" Jack said hesitantly, like he wasn't sure. "I saw a picture of my family; my mother."
"I see." Kiki nodded, but waved a hand. "Ah, well. Don't mind me."
"What are you thinking?"
"I don't know." They walked back out into the hall. Kiki spoke quietly, more to herself than to Jack. "Just a suspicion."
