- Fourteen: Hatred -
(Halo (c) Microsoft Studios, Bungie & related creators; Red vs. Blue (c) the Rooster Teeth team. Text (c) L.Q. Coverdale. Content includes mentions of death, violence and some inappropriate language.)
She hadn't survived the night.
No matter what that imbecile peacenik, that idiotic f&^% of a quack had done, he hadn't saved her. He said he tried, and in the sombre light of the morning, he had broke the news that Meekael had flatlined. He had tried to pump her heart, but her body was too battered and had suffered too much from shock. Funeral arrangements were being made, and Lavernius could hear The Doc speaking quietly to the coroner via chatter. In another room, Michelle wept, and Michaela had excused herself to "take a walk outside". Knowing her, she was probably smashing pieces of unwanted property over the nearest, biggest rock she could find.
He swore thickly and punched the wall of his room. His eyes were burning with tears, and from staying up the entire night, his head was sore. He sobbed, biting back the inevitable weak, unmanly cry that was going to come out. He had been a blubbering wreck when they took away Junior, his only family other than his mother, who was MIA as far as he knew. He wouldn't break Michelle's heart twice with sobbing, and he wasn't in the mood to take effeminate jokes from Michaela.
Taking a deep breath, Tucker wiped at his eyes and slowly stood up. Every part of him felt sick, angry and cold, and his blood was boiling. They would pay, one way or another - the bastards that had murdered Carrie Caboose would get the s%#& kicked out of them from Burnsburnia to Tango Five. He wanted to make the scream, make them whimper, make them hurt as much as Meekael had during whatever beating she had received before hiding herself in that closet. He wanted to hear their bones break, their throats gurgle from being torn open, and see how they felt as they lost everything they loved. If it was the last thing he did, he'd wipe every smidgen of their existence off of Burnsburnia, burn their remains to ashes, and then spit on whatever was left on the wind. He hated them, hated the UNSC for getting there before he could, hated one Michael J. Caboose for being stupid enough to get lost as everything was happening. Like the red-clad mercenaries Carrie Caboose worked with, there was a special place in Hell for Caboose, in Tucker's mind.
And in time, opportunities would present themselves to lead Lavernius Tucker to his vision. He would never imagine how far it would lead him, how deeply into the darkness he so feared it would lead him, and just how close he came to becoming the monsters he hated so much.