Marcus snapped awake as he felt a soft hand touching his shoulder. He reacted purely out of instinct, snapping around and reaching for the first weapon he could find, the knife in his boot as he turned to confront his potential attacker. Maria jumped backwards, staring at him, unsettled by the wild, insane look in his eyes.
"It's alright, it's just me." She told him, holding her hands up defensively. "You're safe here, I invited you remember?"
Marcus looked around, taking in her apartment, and started to slowly come around, remembering that she had indeed brought him here. He had saved her from the middle of a fire fight earlier, and had insisted on bringing him here to tend to his wounds and give him something to eat. It appeared that afterwards, he had succumbed to the exhaustion of his journey and his flight from the guards. Thinking about it, it had to be coming close to three days since he had last slept.
"You were mumbling and you started thrashing around. It looked like you were having a nightmare." She told him gently.
"How long was I asleep?" He asked her, changing the subject. As a result of everything he had seen, everything he had experienced since surviving the crash out in the wastes, he always had nightmares. There was no one who lived outside the dome for any length of time without having nightmares, but for him it was such a common occurrence that he virtually never had a restful sleep.
"You were out most of the night." Maria replied sympathetically, still looking at him a little uneasily. As he sat up, he could see why. She had taken his shirt off to tend to the wounds on his back, exposing the extensive scarring across his body. Between wounds gained in battle out in the wastes, and the fact he had escaped from the camp before his body was fully treated with Venjix's regenerative serum meant that barely any of his flesh was left unscathed. Whenever he saw it in a mirror, it looked like it had been stitched together from parts that shouldn't fit. He always got images of Frankenstein's monster whenever he saw the extent of his scars, something that did nothing to ease his mental state. "Do you mind if I check your dressing?"
Marcus just sat up and leaned forward, allowing her access to his back. She inspected the dressings, making sure they had been applied properly. He looked over to the corner where her son, Dexter was sleeping soundly.
"You're a soldier aren't you?" She asked him. Marcus looked up at her, at which she just pointed to his dog tags. "Where did you come from?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." He replied. "This dressing feels good, thank you."
"I heard a few refugees arrived from the wastes yesterday." She informed him, collecting his plate from the table. "You're one of the freedom fighters aren't you?"
"I just got into the city yesterday." He told her, looking at her a little cautiously. He knew the military would be on the lookout for the infiltration unit that had escaped their capture the day before. He wondered if she knew who he was, if he could be in danger that the military would be coming for him any minute. Of course, he doubted she'd do anything that would put her son in danger.
"I thought the military would have housed you all by now." She commented.
"I kind of got separated from the group." He said semi-truthfully. She just smiled at him, clearly the news hadn't been broken yet that they were on the lookout for an infiltrator. Given the state the city was in, it was likely they didn't want the citizens to have any more reasons to panic.
"I guess they are stretched pretty thin lately." She commented. "I'd recommend you go to the Central Command building to be housed. Who knows, they might even find some of your family in here."
Marcus just shook his head. He already knew from the battle at the factory that Scott and his father were still alive. Of course, right now he had no desire to let them see what he had become. The last time he saw his father, they were enemies, and when he left Scott and Gem in the wastes with the refugees from the camp, they hardly parted on great terms.
"I don't have a family." He told her. He gestured to Dexter's crib. "I better get going. I doubt his dad's impressed you brought a strange man home."
"I lost his father a few months ago." She informed him. "He was a soldier. He was killed in a Venjix raid."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Marcus told her. He hated to see what was going on. He heard a few blasts and crashes, but he noticed that Maria barely flinched.
"This is insane, the whole world's population is reduced to one city, and these cockroaches are fighting among themselves?" He asked her. "What the hell happened here?"
"The Cartels existed in peace for a while. They never advertised the fact, but everyone in Corinth knew that they formed an agreement. There was so little that they knew fighting among themselves would lead to...well..." She gestured out of the window. As Dexter started to become disturbed by the noise, she picked him up, holding him closely and stroking his back, whispering reassuringly in his ear. "Then one of the mob bosses, Fresno Bob suddenly got laid low at the new Mayor's wedding. With the most powerful mob in the city in chaos, the others started to become braver and started taking raids on each other's borders. Before anyone knew what was going on, the whole place went up."
She sighed and went to the kitchen to look out a bottle for her child, before carrying on the story.
"The military's stretched to the limit to contain it, they can't handle it." She told him. "It's just so infuriating. My husband gave his life to defend these people, and at our time of need, when everyone needs to come together, they're fighting for scraps like cockroaches."
"Someone needs to stop this." Marcus stated with authority. He turned to the couch and picked up his blaster t-shirt, but Maria stopped him.
"I can't stop you going, can I?" She asked him. He shook his head.
"Not when people like you and Dexter need my help." He told her. "I can end this, I know I can."
"I don't know why, but I believe you could." She told him in response. "If anyone else said that to me, I'd think they were insane, but with you...I believe it's possible."
She went into another room, before returning with a T-shirt and a leather jacket.
"These belonged to my husband, they should fit you." She told him. "If you ever need anything..."
"I won't be coming back." He interrupted her. "If I'm going to be taking on the entire city, the last thing I can afford is to put you in danger."
"I understand." She replied sadly. "Just go knowing that there is a place for you here if you need it."
Marcus smiled for what felt like the first time since he discovered the truth about Scarlett.
"I can't, but thank you." He told her, putting on the clothes and gathering his helmet and face mask. "It's good for even the loneliest man to know there's somewhere he can go."
He gathered up his weapons and left the apartment, heading out onto the streets. He had to fight a war by himself, but he already knew the first step in his plan. She had already told him the name of the first crime boss, the one that was laid low. He needed to find Fresno Bob.
Tenaya sat in the girl's room, inspecting the watch and the two keys as she waited for Summer to return. Since Summer had discovered the doll's dress in Tenaya's belongings, she wanted to find as much information as she could to confirm her suspicions as to her true identity.
Summer arrived back in the room, shaking her head sadly.
"I'm sorry; I thought my parents might have something about Mrs. Kitchner." She told her. "I only had the clothes I was wearing when I arrived in Corinth. I thought mom and dad might have some records or something, but they didn't have time to bring much, only what little they remembered of them."
"So we still don't know for sure." Tenaya asked her. "It might still be nothing but a coincidence."
"I really can't think of any other explanation." Summer told her. "The pieces fit together. Both you and Julie were blind, both of you were given a silk doll's dress by a friend, you both had a brother..."
"What did you say?" Tenaya asked her. Summer looked at her.
"I said you both..."
"No, before that." Tenaya asked. Summer seemed confused.
"I said the pieces fit together." Summer repeated. Tenaya looked down at the two keys, and inspected them more closely.
"This one's smaller than the other, that's why it doesn't trigger the mechanism." Tenaya told her. She looked to the bigger of the two keys, and inspected it. There was a section on the shaft, a collar of sorts that moved. No one knew what its purpose was. Tenaya moved it, revealing a sort of small groove running down the shaft. Her hands shook a little as she slid the key into place, interlocking them. "It isn't meant to be used on its own, the keys fit together."
"Together the teeth form a different pattern." Summer commented. Tenaya pulled closer to Summer, allowing her to hold her as they inserted the key into the watch and turned it, winding up the mechanism.
Hicks was sitting in his apartment alone, contemplating the events of the day.
He had heard Dr. K recount the tale of everything that had happened, explaining all about Alphabet Soup and their involvement in creating the Venjix Virus. He had heard all about how she, like Gem and Gemma, had been raised from an infant, never knowing life outside of the complex, how they were prisoners, so desperate to escape their permanent imprisonment that they had unleashed the deadliest force the world had ever known.
He understood why they had unleashed the virus, and having known Dr. K for as long as he had, he believed her when he assured her that had she been allowed to install the firewall, it would never have spread beyond Alphabet Soup.
Of course that did little to alleviate the pain over his considerable losses, and his anger over knowing who was responsible even if it was a mistake. As was his duty, he had agreed not to pursue a vendetta against Dr. K, and he had been sworn to secrecy over her involvement meaning that once again, he was dealing with his anger alone.
As he sank a glass of bourbon; he heard a knock on the door. He turned to face it, his hand straying to the blaster he habitually carried tucked into the back of his trousers. He made his way over to the door, opening it, only to find Gemma standing there. He sighed and shook his head.
"I'm not in the mood for visitors." He told her, before closing the door. He walked back to the table, pouring himself another glass, but as he did so, he heard the door opening. He spun around, levelling his blaster, but managed to stop himself from firing as he saw that it was only Gemma.
"Do you treat all visitors so warmly?" She asked him. He just put the blaster away. "Sorry, but I really thought you could use someone to talk to. The electric door lock was easy to hack."
"Right, the genius thing." He commented as he sat down, gesturing for her to do likewise. He offered her a glass, which she accepted. As she drank, she coughed furiously. It was incredibly strong, and unlike anything she was used to.
"I wanted to see if you were alright." She told him, hitting herself in the chest in an attempt to clear up the reaction to the strong drink.
"Well today I shot my boss and found out who's responsible for releasing the Venjix virus." He told her. "Yeah, I'm pretty much riding cloud nine."
"I heard a little about what went on at the command centre." She informed him, looking at him sympathetically. "What you did is a good thing."
"Shooting the Colonel?" He asked her sarcastically. "I still don't know if he'll press charges over that."
"He knows you were just doing your duty." Gemma assured him. "He would probably have done the same under the circumstances."
"I don't know if I can do this." He sighed sadly. "I don't know if I can trust myself to serve any more."
He looked at her and smiled a little, seeing the way she was looking at him. It wasn't so long ago that he was apologising to her for hurting her feelings, letting her down easily like a schoolgirl with a crush on her teacher.
"You wouldn't understand." He told her. "How could you? You were in that...place."
"What happened to you?" She asked him. "I don't know anything about you before you came to Corinth."
"I don't talk about it." He told her. "There's nothing to talk about."
"Everyone has something to talk about." She replied gently, putting a hand on his knee. "Where did you come from?"
"Kansas." He replied quietly. "I came from a small town. I don't think there were ever more than a hundred people living there my whole life. I grew up on my family's farm. It was about 50 acres."
"What was it like?" She asked him. Hicks settled back into the couch and cast his mind back to those days. Despite the events of the day, he couldn't help getting a little smile as he thought about it.
"It was a little wooden house; it had been in the family for years. All my family lived there when I was a kid. My grandmother, my parents, both my sisters and all three of my brothers. It was a pretty cramped house. We used to get under each other's feet all the time." He began the story, thinking about it. "We had mainly corn fields, but we also raised a couple of pigs and some chickens. I used to love the way it would smell in the summer."
"It sounds beautiful." She told him, thinking about her own upbringing by comparison, never seeing the sun until after she escaped with Gem in her teens. He nodded.
"The next nearest neighbour was almost a mile away, but we would meet up every single day after school to play." He told her fondly. "Her name was Jessica. We spent every day together, told each other everything. We were inseparable, but we never realised what we meant to each other until she came back from college. She had dropped out because she missed me too much. We fell in love quickly afterwards. I still can't believe for all those years we never figured out we were made for each other."
He looked at her and shook his head.
"This, the military, the wider world, none of it ever held any interest for me." He informed her. "My brothers and sisters married and moved to neighbouring or into town. My parents and my grandmother stayed there. I was set to marry Jessica and just spend my days at the farm."
"It all sounds so wonderful; I can understand why you didn't want to leave." Gemma told him.
"On the night of my wedding, the whole family came to the farm to celebrate." He continued, recalling the night. "My brothers were so drunk that they left the door open and the dog got out. I told Jessica he would come back, but she was so worried that he'd get lost she insisted I go after him. When I got outside, I saw a swarm in the sky. At first I thought it was locusts, but then I realised they were aircraft. I tried to run back to the farm to warn everyone, but one of them opened fire."
He poured himself another glass, looking at it as a tear ran down his face. He could remember the scene so vividly.
"The house was reduced to nothing but burning timber in a single blast." He told her. "I tried to get near to it to see if I could find any survivors, but the flames were too hot, I just couldn't get close, no matter how hard I tried."
"I can't imagine what that was like." Gemma told him sympathetically, moving over next to him and putting her arm around him. "I was pretty close to one of my handlers, and Dr. K was my friend..."
"In one night, I watched everyone that ever mattered to me in the world, my whole family being destroyed." He interrupted her. "I made my way to Corinth with a few survivors, and I signed up the second I arrived. All I wanted was to destroy the thing that had taken everything from me. When I found out about Dr. K, I couldn't contain myself. I didn't care about anything but taking her out. When I had that blaster pointed at her, all I wanted was to pull the trigger. I didn't care about what would happen to the dome if she didn't help the Rangers, and that scares me. I'm trusted to protect this city, and I nearly let my own feelings betray that duty."
"You didn't though." Gemma reminded him. "You did what was right when it mattered, and that's what counts."
"I just don't know if I can face the Colonel again after this." He told her. "He had so much faith in me, and I shot him. I should have known he only ever has Corinth's best interests at heart. I don't think I can ever face him again."
Gemma just hugged him in a comforting gesture. Hicks was unsure at first, but eventually settled into the hug, before she released him. She looked into his eyes and smiled.
"I need to go now; will you be alright by yourself?" She asked him. He nodded gently. "I'll come around tomorrow to check on you alright?"
"Thanks Gemma." He told her, getting up from the chair and showing her out. "I know you're Dr. K's friend, I'd have understood..."
"I'd like to think I'm your friend too." She replied softly. "I'll be back tomorrow alright?"
Late at night, over at Corinth hospital, Benny was maintaining his vigil by Fresno Bob's bed. Since Ziggy had given him the transfusion, he had regained consciousness, but was still weak. He fidgeted a little on his bed as he tried to get comfortable.
"I keep telling you, visiting hours are over." Benny told him. "I'm only allowed in here because I'm listed as your next of kin."
"I never wanted him to find out Benny." Bob told him sadly. "Do you think he'll ever forgive me?"
"I really don't know, I couldn't tell you." He replied. "He'll visit when he's ready, I'm pretty sure there are a lot of questions he'd like the answer to."
"You want visitors? Will I do?" Marcus asked them. Benny turned on the spot, lunging for him, only to find himself sprawled on the floor unconscious with a single blow. Fresno Bob looked around for a weapon, but Marcus grabbed him. "You're Fresno Bob, the most powerful gangster in Corinth."
"Do you think I'm afraid to die?" Bob asked him. "I've been under threat of death so many times..."
"What makes you think I want to kill you?" Marcus asked him. "I want to put you back on top. In case you haven't noticed, the city's tearing itself apart without you."
"What are you talking about?" Fresno Bob asked him. "What do...?"
"A little history lesson for you Bob, when the Roman Empire was under threat, they would dissolve the senate and elect one man to lead them." He explained. "When you were in charge, there was order, without that, everyone's fighting among themselves. I'm planning on restoring order, and I need your help to do it."
"You're serious about taking on the others aren't you?" Fresno Bob asked him.
"Not just taking them on, but taking them out." He replied. "I plan to give this city the order and the peace it deserves, but even I can't do that alone. I want to put the scorpions back on top."
"What makes you think you can do all this?" Fresno Bob asked him. "You're just one man..."
"I'm one man, but I'm not human." He replied. "Does the name D46 mean anything to you?"
"You're the infiltrator that led the resistance forces in the wastes." Fresno Bob gasped. "You're here?"
"I am, and I'm willing to help." Marcus replied, making his way to the door. "When you get out of here, I'll be in touch. Until then, I have work to do."
By the time he left, Benny was just regaining consciousness. He looked up to Bob with a worried look, seeing him sitting up on the bed.
"Bob, are you alright?" He asked him.
"Get a doctor and sort out a car; I'm getting out of here." Bob instructed him. "I'm checking out."
"Bob, you know that's a dumb move." Benny told him. "You're still recovering, you..."
"I'm alright, I'm better than alright Benny." He told him, turning to get off the bed. Benny helped him to his feet as he realised he wasn't going to be denied. Bob looked to the door and smiled. "I think things in this city might have just gotten a little brighter."