AN: Don't own The chronicles of the Black Company, don't own Worm.
This one practically wrote itself. I had something much more dramatic planned when I originally envisioned Amy joining but the scene just didn't seem to cooperate with me. I'm not unhappy with this but given how different it is from my original idea... I'm a bit nervous about this one. Feedback would be appreciated.
2.5
"Stop following me." I tried to put some fire behind the words but honestly I just sounded tired.
Owl shrugged. "Not going to happen."
For a moment I considered trying to make her leave me alone. I could go about it in a few ways, wouldn't even need to hurt her. But really what was the point? We spent the next few minutes walking in silence.
This portion of the city wasn't too badly off. Power and water were both out and there had been significant flooding from all the heavy rain, but the tidal waves hadn't reached here. Trash was starting to build up in the streets but only just. It would get worse as time passed and more and more people needed to dispose of their garbage and waste.
"At least tell me why you are following me."
Owl Shrugged again. "Lots of reasons."
"Such as?" I growled.
"It's not safe to be alone in the city right now. Possible offensive uses of your power aside you are hardly trained to fight, you are in no way ready for any of the Nine." Owl paused to let that sink in.
I couldn't really argue the point. Crawler can spit acid, and his regeneration is insane. Smart money would be on him. Shatterbird could kill me with shards of glass from almost anywhere in line of sight. Jack like Shatterbird could attack from range. Bonesaw had her minion creature things. I was pulling a blank on the other members just then but the trend was fairly obvious. Touch range biokinetic with no combat training verses anyone who can attack from range is an almost automatic loss.
"Even if you don't run into one of those, ungeziefer, there are still plenty of normal idiots running around with weapons."
"Unger, ungeiz… What?"
Owl chuckled lightly. "Un-gex-ief-er." She enunciated slowly. "It's German. It means vermin."
"You speak German?"
"German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, sign language, though it is a mishmash of military and civilian, my Chinese is a bit of a mess because it is a mix of several different dialects." She glances at my face before chuckling again. It's an entrancing noise. "One aspect of my power is I remember everything, perfectly. I've picked up at least some of the native language of every country the Company has visited, and a few that we have not. I'm quite the linguist."
"That's impressive." Owl just shrugged playing it down though I notice a slight upward twitch of her lips as well as a bit of crinkling around the corner of her eyes.
"The point is you're not trained for combat and you are severely lacking in any kind of range." She paused. "Really all a good close quarters fighter would need is a pair of gloves and a long sleeve shirt."
I glared at her though I think the effect was a bit ruined by the empty feeling that had settled over me since I walked out of Carol's house. Grunting I turned my eyes back to the road and the task of navigating around the many large puddles.
"Is there a point to you explaining how easily you could kill me?"
Owl hummed thoughtfully. "You are important. You're, special. Not in the way that parents call their children special. No, you are something real and measurable. Panacea, a cure for all that ails you. Letting you get killed because your family are too stupid to care for you… It would be a waste."
"What happened to Croaker and Raven?" I asked changing the subject. I didn't want to talk about my family. Not now, maybe not ever.
"There around, just keeping their distance. I asked them to give us a chance to talk."
"Again, why?" I asked slightly frustrated now.
We walked in silence for almost a minute before she finally answered. "There are a lot of reasons, some I doubt you would believe right now, depending on how things turn out I may not even need to tell you. But mostly I wanted to sound you out."
"Sound me out?"
"You've been slogging through a fairly miserable life for the past few years, that sound accurate?" I gave a slight nod. "Figured as much. You kept going, never gave up, without anyone to support you. I'm not sure if I am strong enough to do that."
I shot her an incredulous look. A warm smile broke across her face. "It's true, honest. Fighting with the Company has seen me dragged through more crazy situations than I care to think about, but I always had support. I was never alone. The Black Company… it's family. We look out for each other, you know? We're there for our brothers and sisters." Her voice is filled with warmth and pride.
I can't help but feel a bit of longing for what she describes. To never be alone. To always have people ready to support me. To know, to actually know that there are people who would give their all for me. Vicky and I… We came close to that, but she never backed me against Carol.
"You have a certain kind of strength to only snap now, with everything that has happened lately. You also have a skill that is valuable beyond belief. The company could use you, and we'd be offering you what you need in return."
I didn't respond or react to the offer. I just kept walking. Utterly exhausted mentally and physically but I kept moving one foot following the other. Moving forward was all I had left.
She wasn't wrong. I wanted, needed, that kind of support in my life. After everything that had just happened… I'd never get it from my family. What other options did I have?
I could join the Protectorate. I'd spend the rest of my life doing public relations appearances and healing. Now that New Wave and the Nine know my full powers the PRT and Protectorate would surely find out soon. They might choose to monitor me constantly to be sure I never crossed the line. If I ever did cross a line, I had no illusions that I would quickly find myself birdcage bound.
I had a standing offer from the Slaughterhouse Nine. Even as tired as I felt that thought drew an amused snort from me.
I could try going solo but that was an invitation to be kidnapped and exploited by any villain that could get their hooks into me. I would not even last a month.
The Black Company though… A group of people who would value my abilities, value me. Support from a group of people who would fight and kill for me, so long as I was willing to do the same for them. Could I do that?
The still fresh memory of watching Bonesaw's abomination liquefy seemed to answer that question. But then again maybe it did not. That thing certainly did not have any sort of consciousness. Calling it a biological robot would be more accurate. Though I felt rather grimly certain I would have done the same to its creator given the opportunity.
I'd be as safe as a cape can ever be in when involved in combat, and I'd likely be kept well away from the fighting do to my value as a healer. I'd have support, a family of sorts if Owl could be believed.
I wanted that. I wasn't foolish enough to think it would be perfect though. I knew down to my very bones that it would be hard, that it would change me, that I might even hate it. It wasn't love in the traditional family sense, or in the sense of lovers. It was like the military, brothers and sisters in arms, bonds many claimed to be closer than blood. Once I made that choice there was no going back.
With a pained wince the thought of Vicky flashed through my mind. I might miss Aunt Sarah, Crystal and Eric, but that would only be a slight ache. Vicky on the other hand. She might not have ever backed me against Carol, but she had cared more than anyone else, and I loved her.
Love she would never return the way I wanted. Love she couldn't return the way I wanted. Oh how that thought stung. An old familiar pain, it had been a constant companion recently.
There again was another way joining the Company could help me. A fresh start, away from it all. It would take time to get over Vicky, but maybe getting away from her was the only way to really let her go. The Protectorate could offer me the same chance but again I'd be made into some sort of public relations icon. All the joys of living my life under a magnifying glass for the world to observe.
I just wanted things to go back to the way they were before. Yet I couldn't see it ever happening. More importantly it would still leave me in the same situation in a few years. Live my life hiding from villains behind the rest of New Wave or join the Protectorate, or perhaps the Black Company. Still I had a feeling they Company would teach me enough that I wouldn't need to hide behind them for long. No, they would have me standing with them as quickly as they could. And wasn't that a better, more respectable, place to be anyway?
"Do you ever regret joining?"
Owl gave me a warm smile and chuckled softly. "Raven found me right after my trigger event. My parents had been killed. All the adults from the village had been killed. I and the other children were being used to sweep for mines." She shuddered slightly at the memory.
I stood stunned. She was voluntarily telling me about her trigger event. That was just not done! No one wanted to relive them.
"I was ready to try shooting my way out of the mess. Then the Company swooped in and killed my captors, they took us away. They realized I was a cape almost immediately… Do you know what happens to capes, particularly young ones, in nations at war?" I shook my head no. "They get conscripted."
"You mean…"
"Yes. Child soldiers with great power, already traumatized and malleable, ready to be manipulated." Owl said darkly. "None of them wanted that to happen to me. I've been told they kicked around the idea of sending me here, to the states. But Raven had heard about the Ward program. He and the rest were convinced it was just a different kind of child soldier, a kinder manipulation." Owl shrugged. "From what I've seen they weren't exactly wrong. So Raven kept me, raised me. I grew up a part of the Company, they became family. When the Captain could not put things off any longer he offered me the choice to join The Company, or go my own way. I chose to join. I've never once regretted that choice."
We walked on in silence.
"Why Owl?" I finally asked. The woman walking beside me burst into laughter.
"All the things you could ask about, and you ask me about my name?" Her eyes did the crinkling thing again and a pretty smile spread across her face. "I don't need to sleep, not since my trigger event. Now I only sleep a few times a year if that. I'm up all night and I used to follow Raven around everywhere. Owls are nocturnal birds. The name stuck."
"What do you think they would call me?" I asked hinting at a decision half made already.
Owl's smile grew even wider as she beamed at me. We walked a bit further while she pondered my question.
"Bones." She finally answered. A raised an eyebrow at the response. "It's a reference to an old tv show. It's also an abbreviation of sawbones. An old slang term from when Doctors were more likely to just cut off whatever was bleeding."
"It's a better fit for your group than Panacea." I chuckled darkly.
"True. Does this mean you'll join?"
"I'm not exactly spoiled for good options am I?"
"Most people who join aren't. More often than not people who join have nowhere else to go. You could join the Protectorate."
"Only if I want to live my life under a magnifying glass while they wait for me to slip up and force me to be their PR star." Owl's lip twitched upwards.
"True. Does that mean you'll join? We really could use a few more girls, even with our two new recruits."
The question hung in the air. I must have gone over all the reasons not to stay at least three times today already, and they came easy enough as I reexamined each in turn.
If I remained, assuming I survived the Nine, I was only looking forward to a boring and bleak future. If I went at least I'd be seeing new places and people, and with their help I'd be more likely to survive to see that future.
If I stayed I'd be alone, either mostly or completely depending on how Vicky handled everything. If I went I'd have a family. Not the kind of family I had always wanted, but a family none the less.
If I stayed I'd have to watch Vicky fall in love with some boy and leave me behind. If I left… Well I'd still be saying goodbye but it wouldn't be long and drawn out.
It would mean no more Carol, less hospital visits. It would probably mean I'd see actual fighting more often instead of only ever seeing the aftermath. The first had obvious appeal, the second… I found the idea of actual fighting strangely exciting.
Realistically I didn't have all that much to lose, did I?
The decision was already made It just hung at the tip of my tongue waiting to be spoken. Once the words left my mouth there would be no going back. I felt like I was standing at the edge of a precipice ready to jump.
With an explosive sigh I stopped walking and turned to face Owl. "The name is Bones. Nice to meet you, sister."
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