Cerberus Rising
Stage One: Hounds Of The Illusive
Chapter Six: Freedom's Progress Part IV – The Gift
X didn't normally like to involve himself in the politics of the Council; in fact he had made a very clear point to undermine their every rule and live a life free of the law, doing what he did best. He really didn't care for the debates and concerns of the hierarchy of intergalactic government.
This, however, could not be ignored…
Even a thief like him knew the voice of Sosuke Aizen, the Shinigami who was regarded as the best agent the Council had to offer. He had brought down corrupt organizations, stopped planetary conflicts, and even brought a marching army of Hollows to a halt.
He was the pride of the Council, and now he had evidence that the guy was a mass murdering psychopath.
"Where did you get this?" X demanded.
"Inside a Cyberman. I was attacked on the way to the Citadel, and found a solid fragment of its previous memory drive. I managed to repair it as best I could, but that was all the data I could recover" she explained.
"And you were going to give this to Valentine?" X asked the thought almost humorous.
Tali immediately snatched it back.
"He said he could get me a ship that could take me back to the Flotilla!" she snapped back, losing her cool for a moment.
X raised an eyebrow.
"S-Sorry, I'm still a little shaken that's all" the Quarian engineer apologized, rubbing the edge of her helmet with her claw.
"I'm…on a Pilgrimage" she explained.
"A what?"
"A Pilgrimage, it's a sacred rite that all Quarians go through, it's a sign of adulthood" she explained, her voice suddenly enthusiastic.
X looked around at the mess that had bee caused, stale blood was seeping from the wounds of the unconscious mercs, the stench of smoke from the shells of bullets that had been fired. All of it in the name of adulthood, apparently.
"You couldn't just have had a night-out?" X asked sarcastically, kicking the face of a reawakening merc who promptly fell out of consciousness again.
"It's the most important and upheld traditions in Quarian culture, one has to go and find an item of value, something that could benefit the entire Migrant Fleet. Afterward they can choose which ship they want to serve on, and become a true individual" she explained with great care, as if she was proud of the entire process.
X hadn't really bothered to study the history and culture of other life-forms. Unless it was a client or target, in which case he studied them intently, he really had no interest. Aside from a few traditions, religions and holidays – all alien life seemed to be the same as humans.
Quarians on the other hand…
Tali rubbed the back of her neck, almost as if she was embarrassed.
"As you can see, my Pilgrimage isn't going that well" she sighed.
X remembered the fear in her voice when those mercs surrounded her, he had watched intently, waiting for the right moment to strike at Jan. He had walked away from hundreds of incidents involving innocents. But this was the first time he felt generally…pleased. Pleased that he down something other than a theft.
He rubbed both his temples in frustration.
"Jan must have hit me harder than I thought" he thought to himself.
He then walked over to her, and gently took her hand. Tali was confused for a moment, before the thief typed in a few cords of the spherical device, and the voice resonated once again.
"Who is that?" Tali asked.
"Aizen, the favorite Shadowstep of the Council, who up until recently was revered as the best of the best. Looks like the Council's favorite toy was playing for the other side" he answered, never taking his eyes of the sphere.
"A Shadowstep? Kee-lah" Tali stammered.
"Why trade this in?" X asked again.
Silence.
"…Because I wanted to go back home" she whispered.
X looked at her for a few seconds, her face obscured by her visor. He then let go of her hand, and began to configure his belt, making sure he had enough xynothium left.
"You're not going to make me give this to the Council?" she asked.
"Why? I'm no marine, and it's not my business, I'm just here to settle a score with Valentine" the thief responded.
"…I'll help you" Tali suddenly spoke out.
"What?" X asked, whipping around in shock.
"You saved my life; no one has ever stood up for me before because I was a Quarian, the least I owe you is to give some kind of back-up" Tali pleaded.
"Sorry, I work alone, why would I want you tagging along?" X snapped back, trying to be as harsh as possible.
"Because, you're not the only one who wants payback on Valentine" she responded calmly, hand on hip.
X had met plenty of women in his short life, but none of them had this kind of fire in them, this was the last thing he would have expected from a Quarian.
"Guess that one year break I had really did soften me up"
"Okay, we'll play it your way, you've got the guns after all" X spoke out, giving in to her offer.
"We're not as frail as you people like to think" Tali responded, her wit as sharp as ever.
"I guess not" X replied, finding himself smiling for some reasons.
The sound of groaning caught their attention, and both masked figures turned to see one of the mercs, bleeding heavily form one of his legs, and one the move.
"Looks like we missed one" Tali said, taking out her pistol, but was stopped when a gloved hand intercepted her.
"Don't get too trigger happy, we'll let the hired help lead the way to Valentine" X interjected.
"You can't think that he would be stupid enough to…" Tali trailed off, looking on as the merc disappeared through the alleyways, heading deeper into the Citadel's underbelly.
"In my experience, never doubt the stupidity of hired goons"
Luke Valentine loved his life. He loved the money, he loved the fear he injected into the minds of his victims. He loved how sinful pleasures just fell onto his lap. He loved how he was in the good books of all the major players, and if his luck persisted, then he would succeed the Earl in no time at all.
Finishing another glass of wine, he laid his head back on the sofa, and allowed the two women to speak of how brilliant he was. To him, a boost to the ego was better than getting laid.
The beat of the club next door raged. From his exclusive V.I.P establishment he could relax about having his mercs and other lower-standing employees getting their fair-share of drink and women, while his more personal entourage expanded his grip over the Citadel via blackmail, assassination and bribe.
Life was good.
"Mr Valentine, one of Jan's men is here to see you" one of his bodyguards interrupted. Luke sighed and pushed the girls to one side for a moment,
"Probably little brother Valentine's messenger, he never bothers to show himself unless there's murder or booze, what a pain in the ass" he sighed, inhaling the thick smoke.
"Send him in, the sooner I get that data the closer I get to the Earl's throne"
X was thankful that the architect of the club had decided to add overly large ventilation shafts. I meant that he could crouch instead of crawl, and would give the ambush a much bigger impact.
Tali was behind him, reloading all of her weapons twice over, silent as the grave ever since they had infiltrated the club.
"The Quarians…they created the Cybermen, right?" X asked, glad that the pounding of the night club's music drowned out any sound they would make.
Tali immediately stopped what she was doing.
"Yes…we made them centuries ago because we wanted to create a workforce that never tired or felt any kind of pain. We needed free labor, and we were too concerned with other matters to notice the signs" she sighed, looking at the dusty, metallic floor.
"Signs?" X asked.
"That the more we created, the more they grew a consciousness, a collective consciousness. They became smarter in large numbers, until eventually…they rebelled"
She was quiet for a moment, as if reminiscing memories that were not hers.
"Quarians used to be respected once; we even had a place on the Council. But because of the mistakes of my ancestors, we lost our home, our independence and…even ourselves"
"You mean your pride?" X asked, trying to work his way through her cryptic language, keeping a half eye at the commotion below.
"We didn't always where these suits, we didn't always have an immune system so frail that a common virus for you could end up as a life-threatening disease for me" she said bitterly, he hands tightly gripped around her gun.
"We weren't always outcasts"
"…So, the Cybermen forced you to become Nomads" X answered, watching as Luke Valentine stabbed the henchmen in front of him with his signature knife, cutting his head off in one clean swipe.
"If it's any consolation, you're not the only one" X said, readying five shuriken in his right hands.
Tali looked up at him.
"Once you've made your mark on society, people's minds become fixed one opinion of you. If they see a mask, they will associate it with whatever society has conditioned it to, they will never attempt to see beyond that" he sad as he inched towards the opening in the air duct, the panel would come away with one swift kick.
"That's…how everyone views Quarians" Tali replied, swallowing a lump n her throat.
"That's how society views me"
For the first time in ages, Tali was stunned. It wasn't a technical error; it was a calculation that was well beyond her years of understanding. For the past few years she had experienced the bluntness of humanity, of how they practically worshiped those with superior technology, and how they brushed away those who were stained with the sins of their forefathers.
But now, this man in a mask, a man whose name she didn't even know, shared her view, and knew the kind of emotional trauma that had engulfed her people for decades.
"And…how do you face it? How do you overcome that prejudice every day for your life?" she asked, struggling to hold back the emotion in her voice.
He turned and looked at her, but not like anyone had looked at her before. For the first time, someone looked at her through the helmet.
"I remind myself, that the views of the Council, the Citadel, the whole human race…" he leaned closer, so close that their faces were almost touching.
"They don't mean a damn thing to me"
Tali's heartbeat went into overdrive.
Luke Valentine kicked the beheaded body of the mercenary aside; he had lost control of his anger when the fat bastard hadn't even recalled what the killer looked like. All he could say was that there was the Quarian, and a guy dressed in black.
He cursed and smashed his glass on the floor, staring daggers into the eyes of his entourage.
"I don't care how much money it costs, I don't care if you have to look beyond the fucking Terminus system! Find the bastard who killed Jan and bring me his FUCKING HEAD!" Luke howled.
A panel of the nearby air vent fell to the floor with a thundering clatter, and all eyes turned to it. In less than a second, a living shadow slipped through the vent and rolled on to he floor, skull mask giving him the impression of a reaper.
"Hate to gatecrash, but this party's canceled!" X flung his shuriken in a 360 degree circle. The blades lodged themselves in nearby walls and even into the ligaments of some unfortunate henchmen.
Pressing his thumb onto the palm of his hand, they metallic stars exploding, creating a vacuum of fire and smoke in the V.I.P room.
Scream's echoed, and gun began to fire. Sticking to the heavily dusty areas, X leapt from one wall to the next. He easily avoided the chaotic gunfire, jumping between high areas to avoid the bullets, and falling to the floor to take them out.
Like a wolf stalking it's pray…
"Where is he?" Luke's voice could be heard. He had taken out his own gun and was firing madly, or wherever he could see a shadow in the endless smoke.
He ended up killing two of his own goons by mistake.
Eventually the smoke began to fade, and the cover was swept away. Luke grinned and scanned the room for his target, ready to fill his body with enough thermo ammo to turn him into the next wicker man.
But there was no one in sight.
"What the hell? Where are you?" he barked, the stench of fresh blood filling his nostrils. The henchmen in front of him were either unconscious of bleeding heavily on the floor for bullets or wounds inflicted by the shuriken.
Two hands reached up from behind him and grabbed his neck.
Luke was thrown into the nearest wall, where his face was promptly pummeled by a pair of gloved fists until he felt his nose break and the blood come rushing out. He was robbed of his weapons instantly, the handle of the gun being used to knock his face into the floor.
The assault briefly ceased, and the elder Valentine brother finally had the opportunity to look up at his attacker. He did not like what he saw.
"Remember me?" X hissed, arm outstretched, and the 'x' pattern on the palm beginning to glow.
"…How could I forget?" Luke replied, suddenly very calm, wiping away the majority of the blood with his white glove.
"You were our best agent, did some grand thefts. I have men out there who aren't even a quarter of what you were" Luke continued, slowly getting off of the floor.
"That your last resort? Kiss my ass in the hope that I let you live?" X asked, his voice a mixture of burning hate and light humor.
"You don't kill X, your too afraid of death to even dare attempt it" Luke retorted, taking out one of his cigarettes.
"Yeah, Jan thought that too"
He hesitated for a moment, but Luke simply chuckled as he lit his cigarette and enjoyed its intoxicating taste. If there was one thing in the universe that X hated, it was that smirk.
"I always told him that if he ran his mouth off too much it would be the death of him, my little brother was bound to end up dead in some alley, just never thought it would be by your hands" he said, almost as if he was impressed.
"Enough of the crap, you've got five seconds to give me a reason not to blow a hotel in your gut" X threatened.
"Just one? Well, it anything I would have to say…" Luke flicked the cigarette out of his hand and smiled viciously, a sign that X caught onto a second too late.
He felt the end of the barrel against his head, from the way it felt he assumed it was a shotgun, probably that Arrancar bodyguard he thought he had taken out. He made a mental not to throw two lots of shuriken into them next time.
"Jan may have been a fool, but I am most certainty not" Luke hissed, his voice certainly turning very cold, and very feral.
"Whatever tricked you pulled, it won't save you from this. Now I'm only going to give you two seconds to give me a valid reason why I should give the signal to have your brain splattered around the wall" Luke threatened.
"…Only two?" X grinned.
There was the sound of a gunshot, defiantly a shotgun. But instead of the thief's head exploding into pieces, it was that of the Hollowfied bodyguard, who fell to the floor in a bloody mess.
Luke's face went pale, well…paler, and he spun around in shock. To see none other than Tali, her shotgun raised and pointing straight at him, finger on the trigger.
The elder Valentine's cool demeanor dropped like an anvil.
"Luke, I think you've already Miss nar Rayya, she's my personal ace up the sleeve tonight" X introduced, loving every second of Luke's expression.
"Pleasure's all yours" she replied.
Before Luke could even think the words, oh shit, he found himself being flung onto the bar table. His face pressed against the broken glass, beer and blood of his subordinates.
"For the record, Jan fell for that as well" X grinned
"Damn you…" the butch man struggled to get free form the shadow's gloved grip, but ultimately failed.
"I won't forgive your for this!" he spat out, his face soaked in blood from his broken nose and various other blows and cuts inflicted onto his face.
"Oh, I'm sure that'll stop me from sleeping at night" X replied, pressing his face in further, causing the man to cry out in pain.
"W-What do you want?" Luke wailed.
"I was out of commission for a year because of you, now I bet in that time you built up quite the nice little criminal empire. I want the funds" X answered.
"What?" he yelled out, causing his face to be lifted and smashed into an unbroken bottle, his cries got even higher, blood pouring from the cuts along his face.
"I'm going to cripple the business that you and your boss built up; you're going to give me all the money that you made…and I'm going to use to bring down the Earl"
"I…I can't" Luke wept.
"You will, because you don't want to die here" X replied, enjoying how he was reducing the man to a whimpering state.
"You don't kill! You don't kill people! Over 100 heists and not one death! What makes you think that you can kill me now?" Luke spat out, gambling on the humanity left in the thief.
"He doesn't…" a new voice, this time belonging to Tali, entered the scene, face shrouded by a purple mask.
"But I don't mean filling in for him" she said, raising a heavy pistol to the man's forehead, who went white with fear.
"…S-Shit!" he cursed.
"You heard the lady, now had over the data like a good boy before you end with a hole in your head!" the masked man warned.
Reluctantly the man reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pad, holographic data streaming across in a bright yellow color. After which he was tossed to the floor like a ragdoll, badly beaten and bruised, into the nearest wall
"You bastard X…you're no different from that psychotic group, Cerberus!" he yelled, wiping the blood form his mouth.
"Aw, now you've gone and hurt my feelings" the man with the crimsons 'x' pained across his left eye replied sarcastically.
One hard punch to the face later and Luke Valentine crumpled to the floor, out like a light.
There was a brief silence between the pair, X soaking up the results of what he had done, and what he was going to do next. After all, if he was to make good on his threat, he had a lot of work cut out for him.
"What will you do now?" Tali asked, breaking the silence, the beat of the club next door echoing in the broken and bloodied room.
"Tie up loose ends…then get back to what I do best" he replied, walking over to the Valentine brother, and began to tie his hands up with nearby wire.
"Should we kill him? What if he escapes?" Tali asked.
"C-Sec will handle him, they've been dying to put him in front of a court, and if he even mentions my name then he's confirmed that he's working with the lowest of the low, automatic life imprisonment" X answered, tossing the unconscious man to the floor.
"What about you? You continuing with your Pilgrimage?" X asked, feeling slightly embarrassed that he remembered what it was called.
"No…I…I've spent years looking for something of worth and…I feel like I need to go home more than ever, even if I fail the Pilgrimage" she replied, sadness infecting her voice.
"Why?" X asked.
"…Because I need to see the people I love, after so much prejudice and disappointment, I've lost faith that I'll ever find anything of worth. I know when I've failed, and I don't see a point staying away form the Migrant Fleet any longer" she replied.
"Even if it's in disgrace?" X asked.
"…Yes"
X turned around, looking at the massive hole in the middle of the complex due to the damage caused by the gunshots. He slowly turned around and headed towards it, ready to put the whole thing behind him and start fresh once again.
Then he stopped, his mind agitating him to no end. He slowly reached into his suit and pulled out the data he had stolen from Noveria.
"Would details on the Cybermen be good enough?" X asked.
"Well, yes, we haven't had a chance to study them in years, we have no idea if they've upgraded or not" she explained.
"Here, take it" he said, tossing the small object over his shoulder, not even looking back as she caught it, staring at it through her purple veil, hands shaking.
"W-What?" he voice was shaking not with fear, but with sheer shock, as if he had just handed her a diamond or something of equal value.
"You need it more than I do, besides, this makes us even" the masked man stated, already starting to walk away, out of the ruins of the club.
Tali was in shock, utter shock, as if she didn't believe that this was actually happening. In her hands she had an item that would finally finish her long journey, a journey she had wanted to end for as long as her recent memory allowed.
"T-Thank you…I won't forget this!" she stated, her voice filtered just as his was, both by masks.
"Give the data on Aizen to the Council, maybe it will change their minds about Quarians a little bit" X explained.
Tali was speechless, like she had suddenly been blessed, she felt as if she would start to cry tears of joy at any moment. She then straightened up, as if suddenly remembering something important.
"Wait! You know my name, but I didn't get yours" she asked, cradling the chip with such care as if it were a newborn child.
The man in the skull mask turned to face her, somehow everything about her made him feel like he crossing that infamous line, the line that had once blurred when he played the hero, one too many times for his liking.
"You're better off not knowing" he stated.
"Please tell me!" she asked.
"Why?"
"It's just…surely the Council will want to know who found out about Aizen!" she insisted, however her tone became much quieter when she received a fierce glare from the masked man.
"No! When they ask, you don't mention me in any way, I wasn't here, and we never met" he barked, causing the girl to flinch.
"But…okay, I won't say anything about you to the Council…but tell me you name for my sake" she insisted yet again.
"Why? What do you get out of it?" he asked.
"…So that when I return from my Pilgrimage, I want to know who it was that helped me get so far, I…I want to know who to thank for everything" she stated, almost whispering.
Inhaling a deep breath, the man stepped out into the corridor, which was still stained with old blood form the previous scuffle, bullet holes and marks from exploded grenades lay everywhere. He could even hear the woman sigh; he could see her shoulder slump from the corner of his eye.
"Red X" he spoke out, before pressing the central button on his belt, and disappeared from sight.
Tali was left alone in the neon lit room, staring at the spot where the masked angel had vanished from her very eyes. She looked at the chip in her hands, and sent a silent prayer to the man in the skull mask.
"Red X…kee'lah se'lai"