"That should do it," Aaron said, slamming the Jeep's trunk down to cover the two MP5s inside. Hank watched him as he walked back towards the driver's side of the vehicle, expecting him to pull something else out of his pockets.
"Is this all we're bringing?" Hank asked.
"Something wrong?" Aaron countered.
"You pack really light."
Aaron shrugged. "It's an auxiliary barracks in the middle of nowhere, filled with greyshirts. Couldn't really ask for a bigger mission from the brass last second. They probably just gave me this out of pity."
"It's not really like them to do something like that."
"Well maybe they've had a recent change of heart. I don't fucking know." Aaron got into the car. "Get in. Not exactly in the mood to be playing 20 Questions."
Hank complied without another word, and the Jeep's engine rumbled to life as Aaron turned the key in the ignition.
"Think we'll make it back before the end of the day?" Hank asked, and Aaron glanced sidelong at him. "Sorry, don't want to keep Nikolai waiting too long is all. The longer it takes, the more questions he'll ask."
Aaron stared up into the sky as the sun made its retreat, withdrawing the warmth with it.
"It'll be over before then, I promise."
Chapter 49: Use and Abuse (Part I)
The silence didn't settle right with Nikolai.
It had been almost thirty minutes since Aaron had suddenly appeared, taking his partner to… well, who knows where. Hank hadn't come back since then. Nikolai could only assume that the two of them were spending time catching up, in the cafeteria or the weight room.
If it weren't for Aaron's eyes, he would have believed it too.
He knew the gaze he'd seen all too well - eyes that were forced to be calm and collected, while the brain tried to mute the desperate cries of the heart and soul. They were eyes that belonged to somebody who had surrendered all morals for the sake of progress.
Nikolai had seen them once before in the features of the man who made him realize how fickle things like trust and friendship were.
The bed creaked loudly as he stood up, and his body immediately felt cooler from moving off the one spot he had been lying on for what seemed like years. Sure, he could walk, but his muscles ached like Hell, as if he'd hit the gym hard the day before. The only thing in his body that kept him ticking was his brain's grim reminder of his past life. Those memories of a man, powerful and defiant, who had stepped on everyone who was in his way.
No. This wouldn't happen a second time. Not like this.
The door to the medbay opened. Lars wasn't around, thankfully; the wounded operative still had a week left in rehabilitation before they would officially let him go. Nikolai was realistic enough to know that "go" didn't just include from medical care. If anything, that just made the thought of his partner running around with someone else doing his job more maddening. But right now, all of that was irrelevant.
Right now, he just needed some clothes…
"Everything's completely shot," Shane said, shaking his head as he stared at the monitor in front of him, "Until this thing's fixed, it'll be impossible to do any work. Even then, we might need a serious repair crew if we want to get all our stuff running again by the end of the day."
"So it's just like last time? When Felix… you know?" Darius asked.
"Thankfully, no. If something blew up, we'd have heard it by now. We'd have heard something."
"Good. I don't exactly have the fondest of memories about last time, you know."
"Neither do I, Darius."
Shane grunted to himself loudly enough for Darius to hear.
"Shane. You're still thinking all this is Recko's fault, aren't you?"
"I mean…" Shane hesitated.
"You don't believe it, though."
Shane sighed. He stared up at the ceiling for a few seconds. "Let's at least just fix the surveillance system so we can get our evidence. Where the hell did she run off to? Can you bring her back here?"
"I'll try. Can't help but point out though that you're quite calm for having her run around the facility like this."
"All the important stations are locked down from any unauthorized entry. Even if you managed to somehow get inside, using any method other than the right one to access any data would instantly trigger the alarms. If she does anything, she'd be as good as dead."
"Wouldn't that alarm system include this station?"
"Yes, and?"
"Then why wasn't it triggered if she really did do all this?"
"How about you save your detective skills for finding that girl first? She has no keycard to any of the living quarters, so the only other places she would be at apart from the hallways is the cafeteria, gym, or bathrooms. Both bathrooms."
"So basically the entire fucking facility. That narrows things down, thanks. You know I still technically outrank you, right?"
"Hard to forget when you bring it up every time. Look, if you can't find her in thirty minutes, I'll call up some guards to help out the search. But honestly, I'd prefer to clear this up without bothering anyone else, so you'd be doing me a favor if you can get this done before then. I'll take care of things here."
"Okay. But this time, you're giving me the sirloin steak, capiche?"
"Fucking… fine. Just hurry up before the offer expires."
Darius walked out of the room, leaving Shane back to the mess in front of him. The engineer scowled, cursing to himself.
"If only Corey was still here…"
The door to the room opened, interrupting Shane's work again. He turned around; to his surprise, standing there by the doorway was...
"Nikolai?"
"Shane. There's something I need to talk to you about."
Instead of the light-blue patient gown he wore in the medbay, Nikolai was wearing his usual attire. He wouldn't have looked any different than before the incident were it not for his shirt's right sleeve, knotted at the shoulder, the empty cloth dangling uselessly.
Shane made a conscious effort to avoid staring.
"Can it wait? Something's up with the engineering mainframe and if I don't fix it now-"
"It can't."
The terseness combined with the lack of familiar sarcasm he always sprinkled on top of his words made Shane stop in his tracks. Just as he opened his mouth to respond, Darius stepped into the room.
"Didn't I tell you to go find Recko?" Shane asked, looking past Nikolai's shoulder.
Recko entered the room right beside Darius, crossing her arms.
"Oh," was the only word Shane could manage to say in response.
"She was standing right by the door, in case you were wondering," Darius said. "And if you're also wondering why it took me so long to bring her inside, it was because I was trying to talk her into coming back."
"I was told this wankstain was bawling in a puddle of his own tears beggin' for me to come back," Recko said, her eyes narrowing onto Shane. "That mutt face of his is drier than the Sahara."
Shane crossed his arms, focusing his attention onto Darius. "Was I, now?"
Darius raised his arms in defeat. "Okay, maybe I embellished a tiny bit. But Shane, don't you have something to say?"
Shane turned around, his face defiant as he operated on the systems again.
"I'm clearing you of suspicion once we salvage some of the surveillance footage here."
Darius sighed as Recko threw up her arms.
"Shane-"
"Well lookie here. The troglodyte hasn't learned a single-!"
"I'll trust you once I have proof-!"
"Shane, listen! I don't think there's-!"
"Are you fucking kidding me, you-!"
"Everyone, just-"
"More I can focus, the sooner we can settle this-"
"SHANE-!"
"Give me a minute to actually finish-"
"Why you lil'-!"
"There! I finally managed to recover some- UGH!"
Shane turned around to a vice grip on his collar. Before his brain could register it was Nikolai who was grabbing him, he was slammed against the adjacent wall by one arm. His stunned eyes met Nikolai's fiery ones.
"I think Shithead might be in trouble," Nikolai said, the words slowly leaving his lips to ensure the engineer would understand him the first time around.
Shane felt his back slide against the wall as Nikolai released him. He regarded the crippled veteran with an unfamiliar coldness in his eyes.
"All of you, shut up. Nikolai, explain."
"You know that kid Fuckfa-" Nikolai paused to correct himself "- Gunner was with, all the damn time? Lost his brother? Dark brown hair?"
"Aaron?" Shane replied almost instinctively. "What about him?"
"Yeah, that little shit!" Nikolai said, "He just came out of buttfucking nowhere and dragged Shithead off!"
"And that… concerns me how, exactly?" Shane asked.
"Hold on," Recko said, leveling her hand midair to represent height. "Perchance, was that 'Aaron' kid about yeigh tall?"
"I think so," Shane confirmed.
"That's him!" Recko yelled, jumping onto her feet, "That's the runt who ran out of this room just after I did! I betcha he's the cocksucker behind this!"
"I think things are starting to make a little bit more sense now," Darius said, dusting himself off as he stood back up, "Shane. I assume you were going to tell us that you salvaged some of the surveillance footage before Nikolai slammed you against that wall. Play it."
A million different statements wanted to escape Shane's head, but only one action mattered to everyone at that point. He turned back to the monitor behind him, playing the long-awaited evidence with a push of a button. The video was mostly corrupted, but the few seconds of silent, black-and-white visual clarity were enough to confirm it.
"I TOLD YOU SO!" Recko hollered, pointing at the monitor like a madwoman. "I TOLD YOU SO! I TOLD YOU SO!"
"What? But… why?" Shane stammered.
"Shane. Listen," Nikolai said, grabbing onto his shoulders, "I think Shithead and Aaron aren't in the facility right now. Is there any way you can confirm or deny that?"
"No, that's not possible. The only way anyone would have clearance to leave is if-"
Shane stopped himself mid-sentence. He slipped out of Nikolai's grip and ran towards the phone on his desk, rapidly punching in numbers.
"What are you-?"
"Hush!" Shane ordered Nikolai. He leaned into the intercom as it came to life.
"Augustine, my time is short. You better have a good reason for contacting me at this hour." Margaret's aged, female voice on the other end was brusque and impatient.
"I apologize, ma'am, but there's something urgent I would like to confirm. Can you please check if Operative Wimbleton was recently dispatched to a mission?"
"Operative Wimbleton? He is still assigned as Nikolai's partner and, if I recall correctly, Nikolai is still hospitalized. Why?"
"Check, please."
The only sounds that could be heard from the other side was a combination of keys clacking and Margaret mumbling to herself.
"... Ma'am?" Shane asked after a few tense seconds.
"Did you authorize this?"
"Authorize what?"
"You are no longer a Chief Engineer. You no longer have the clearance to authorize any kind of operation. I thought this was clear."
"Ma'am, you can check the security footage. I have not authorized a single thing."
More silence. Then...
"I need the location of all our vehicles. Forward their coordinates to me ASAP."
"All of them? What's-?"
The call was cut. Shane hastily redialed Margaret's line to no avail. He slowly put down the phone, turning back to Nikolai.
"Nikolai... what's going on?"
"Well maybe if you bothered to listen from the start-!" Nikolai stopped himself, letting out his frustration with an exhale. "Fuck it. My bet is that Aaron kid took Shithead out for a mission that doesn't actually exist."
"And how exactly would that happen?" Shane asked.
"What do you think he was doing in the security footage, then?" Nikolai immediately responded.
"It's not possible from this terminal," Shane explained. "We can review missions, but we don't have clearance to create them. Only the terminals in the Briefing Room have that capability."
"He could have RAT-ed it," Recko chimed in. "Don't know how the shit show of your servers work here, but if they're at all connected, then this terminal's a huge Achilles' heel."
Despite Recko's condescension, Shane knew that she spoke from experience. The brutal coldness of the facts did not sit well with him.
"How could he have cracked our passcode that quickly? Aaron isn't a hacker."
"He could have done it faster if he knew what he was playing around with. Video's a bit rubbish, but I can still see that USB is AAHW standard." Recko said.
She leaned towards the paused surveillance footage, pointing at the device in Aaron's hand. "Black with red stripes. They give engineers those teeny things a week after training, but looks are deceiving. One of those babies is definitely large enough to sneak a RAT like the ones we used to wipe out- sorry, censor- news databanks."
"That's… actually useful to know," Shane said, scratching the back of his head, "Thanks. I guess I'll count us even."
"'Even'? What shit are you accusing me of now?!"
"You abandoned your post when I specifically told you to stay put. None of this would have happened if-!"
"I was using the loo, you swine!" Recko shouted. "What the bloody fuck did you expect me to do?! Piss on the floor?! I bet you'd get a kick out of that, wouldn't ya?!"
"What? No! Of course not!"
"If that's the case, then why're you turning so red right now, hm?"
"HEY!" Nikolai hollered at the top of his lungs, silencing the ongoing conversation, "Have your fucking lovers' quarrel some other time! I need to get to Shithead, now!"
"Nikolai, you're not even supposed to be out of your bed. They're going to send Senior Field Operatives to their location once I track which Jeep the two of them took, so until then-!"
"They wouldn't make it in time. All the other SFOs are probably still out on ops!" Nikolai countered. "If shit really is hitting the fan, the only chance Shithead's got in making it out alive is if I go right the fuck now."
"I am not sending you to your death, Nikolai. You can't fight anymore, not like that!"
The room went quiet as the magnitude of those words settled in. Shane realized what he had said.
"Wow. That was… blunt," Darius noted.
Shane ignored his inferior's words.
"Nikolai, I-"
"I know. I know I can't fight," Nikolai said, the bitter feeling of the words leaving his throat stinging at his tongue. "But I can at least stall for time. Until… until someone who can fight shows up."
Shane turned around, shaking his head. An image of Corey's face came back to his mind, haunting him over this exact same indecisiveness. He just had to follow protocol; had he just done so last time, Corey would still…
"I am not sending you out there alone."
"Fine, I'll bring help. All you need to do is to give me a ride and a set of coordinates. As for the brass, well, I'm sure Margaret is itching to get rid of me, so there won't be problems there. Shithead's important to you bastards, right? A lot more important than a fighter that's missing an arm."
Darius and Recko looked back at Shane, who was now holding himself against the terminal.
"Shane," Nikolai repeated.
"I don't want to be the one to make the mistake costing another person's life, Nikolai."
Nikolai pointed at his stump, wearing an eerie grin.
"See that? I lost my arm. But that's not the worst of it. I lost Gunner. People give me space now, but they do it out of pity, not respect. Pah! I'm tired of losing shit. That Aaron kid's shifty and I bet your ass that he's just leading Hank's to his death. If you send me out, I might not make it back. But if ya don't, I'm damn sure Shithead's gonna die. Who'll be making the mistake then, huh?"
The veteran was eerily calm, which exacerbated the already tense atmosphere. He took two paces forward.
"No more fucking around. Make a call. It's now or never."
Shane pressed his fingers against the steel in front of him until their tips turned white. He knew Nikolai was lying; he didn't care about Hank. He just wanted one final chance to fight. Margaret would see right through it also, but considering the circumstances, she just might not care. And if she didn't, they all knew what would come out of that decision.
Nikolai definitely knew too. Hell, maybe he even wanted it to happen.
Shane walked back to the intercom on his desk. He punched in the same sequence of digits for the third time. The line was picked up. Of course it was; what did he honestly expect?
Things weren't working out in his favor like they used to anymore.
"... Ma'am?"
"Augustine, do you have the coordinates of those vehicles?"
"It will take me a minute to retrieve them. But… there's something I need you to approve of first."
Hank shifted in his seat, staring at the fields of rocks with half-opened eyes. The ride was uncomfortably devoid of any conversation; he supposed it couldn't have been helped considering the nature of their mission.
Though a little chat would at least liven up the trip.
"What was your favorite mission when the whole team was together?" Hank suddenly asked.
Aaron's eyes remained glued to the road in front of him. "There wasn't one."
"Oh."
Hank turned back to his right and watched the Nevadan wasteland hurtle past. Staring out into the distance had brought another flashback of Julia's face. A tinge of guilt pained his chest; all those conversations she tried starting with him, he had just shaken off. Was this how it felt like for Julia all those years? To have one's compassion go ignored?
What would she have done if she was in his place right now? Hank could imagine his old caretaker, alone and afraid, surrounded by hardened killers - a daffodil, buffeted by an unrelenting blizzard. He forced the loitering thought from his mind; Hank hated to admit it, but he knew if that idle rumination lingered any longer, it would stick in is conscience and become very difficult to extricate.
Hank glanced towards Aaron; it seemed as if his partner had not moved a single inch. Perhaps he, too, was in deep thought.
"I think my favorite was the one where we went out for burgers. You gotta know the one I'm talking about, right?" Hank asked again.
Julia wouldn't want her friends to feel sad. She would want to change the topic, lighten the mood.
"Nah," Aaron responded.
"You definitely do," Hank persisted. "You were the one who suggested it after the mission. I remember you threw a hissy-fit though, cause we could only get the turkey burgers."
"Real men eat beef burgers. Accept no substitutes."
Hank pointed an accusatory finger at him, a wide grin forming on his face. "So you do remember!"
The tiniest of chuckles escaped Aaron's lips. "I wish I didn't. That miserable excuse of a burger… ugh, makes me want to puke just thinking about it."
"It wasn't that bad."
"It was a fucking abomination to everything American about the burger!" Aaron shouted back, "God, they might as well make those things vegan! Leave it to Mikhail to just…"
As soon as the name left Aaron's lips, what little resembled himself of the past faded with his words. His grip on the steering wheel grew tighter.
"What's the matter?" Hank asked.
The look on Aaron's face along with his grip eased once he realized his reflex.
"Nothing. Just felt a little sick to my stomach was all."
"Was it something you ate?"
"No."
"... Oh."
The quiet felt worse than before. Hank sighed; so much for trying to talk things out. When his eyes focused back on the scenery, he noticed a significant change.
Woodlands.
Or, more accurately, "woodlands."
What was once nothing but miles of sand and rock had suddenly began turning into treescapes, their trunks packed into a dense forest. Racking his memories of all the missions he had gone on before confirmed to Hank that he had never travelled to this part of Nevada before.
"Hey, Aaron?"
"What, Hank?"
"Where are we going exactly?"
The amount of force Aaron's foot pressed against the accelerator increased slightly. "Don't worry. We're close. We'll be there in a couple of minutes, I promise."
Hank said nothing as he watched the reading on the speedometer climbed a few miles per hour. As promised, a few minutes later, the speed declined to zero. Aaron yanked the keys from the ignition, immediately exiting the vehicle.
"We hike from here."
"Hike?"
"We'll have to pass through this forest to reach the target facility. Driving through would be fun, but we'd probably hit a tree eventually," Aaron said. He pulled his MP5 out of Jeep's trunk. "I'll lead."
Hank also retrieved his weapon, barely able to get a word in as Aaron was already making his way towards the dense collection of trees. Cricket songs took the place of where their words would have been, as their soles crunched the gravel beneath them. Alien branches and leaves above their heads swallowed the paltry amounts light, streaming from the evening sky.
Compared to other places he had been to, Hank couldn't help but feel how out of place this forest was. The trees still found a way to survive despite all odds, desperately clinging to life, even as man and machine hacked away at their numbers, even as the sky set them ablaze with vicious dry thunderstorms, even as the sky evaporated- stole- every precious droplet of water.
Daffodils in a blizzard.
A loud rustle from their right interrupted the trek. Aaron spun on his heel just as he was taking another step forward, slipping off his footing.
"Ah!"
His world fell backwards as gravity aimed his skull for the rocky ground behind him, until-
Poof!
By the time he had regained his focus, Hank's arms were already wrapped around his chest, stopping his fall.
"Watch your step, Aaron! I don't need you cracking your skull open on me!"
Like a father to his child, Hank placed him back on his feet. Aaron turned back to the source of the noise, only to see a snake slither over and past broken leaves and branches.
Hank snapped his fingers thrice in front of his partner's face. "Aaron? Hello?"
Aaron shook his head out of his daze. "Sorry."
"I wish your 'sorries' could get rid of mosquito bites," Hank said, scratching at an angry welt on his left forearm. "I think I've been bit twice already. Let's hurry this up, yeah?"
"Yeah, sure." Aaron passed by Hank. "We can jog. But let's keep it quiet."
"Don't slip and fall again, old man."
"Fuck you."
The climb grew steeper; Aaron heard Hank's breathing grow haggard. Turning around, he realized the distance between them had tripled.
"You alright?"
Hank nodded, raising a hand up as he heaved deep breaths. "Yeah! I…phew. Shoulda done hill climbers during my workouts… just haven't been on missions for a while now, so…"
"Who's the old man now?" Aaron reached out towards Hank, "Come on, we're almost there. You can push yourself."
Hank stared at the hand, then looked back down, wiping invisible sweat from his brow.
"Right, well um… I get that, but uh…"
"Spit it out, man."
"… This isn't a good time, but I gotta piss."
Aaron pulled back his hand as he rolled his eyes. "Dammit, Hank. Why now?"
"Look, everything was sorta sudden, alright? I didn't think we'd be out for this long already. Just… give me a bit and I'll be done, okay?"
"Fine. Go. Be quick about it."
"I hear you. Don't want the mosquitoes to bite my balls off, now."
"Just go!"
Hank jogged off into the dark, one arm across his stomach. Soon, his wheezing breaths melted into the nighttime ambiance. As Aaron watched him fade away, a little part of him wish Hank hadn't caught him when he was startled by that snake.
Maybe then, he wouldn't be able to do what had to be done.
"You sure we're heading the right way?" Hina yelled over the engine. She tightened her hand on her seat belt as violent turbulence seized the entire chassis; Eli had made another shortcut offroad.
"I'm positive," Nikolai said. "Why else would their jeep be in the middle of buttfucking nowhere? And why the fuck would Shithead fall for this bullshit? Head's still full of shit, that kid."
"Don't hammer on him like that. Aaron's his partner, so of course he might not believe it," Hina retorted. "I honestly have a hard time believing it too, so cut him some slack."
"How about you focus on looking for mooks to snipe and ask those questions later, Honeybuns?"
"You're lucky that we need you right now. Otherwise, I would've thrown you off this car for calling me that."
"Considering Nikolai's nickname for Hank," Eli quipped, "Honeybuns might as well be a compliment."
"Damn right, Gimpchimp."
"Ah. Burns my soul."
"Buncha wiseasses..." Nikolai muttered to himself as he opened a canister of light-blue pills. Hina recognized them as Accelerants, but she didn't recognize the label- Nikolai had clearly made an effort to scratch it off.
"Those won't make a difference, you know," Hina said, as Nikolai swallowed the canister's contents. "They take several hours to activate."
Nikolai ignored her comment and downed a container of green pills. Endurants.
"Slow down! You're going to-!"
"Kinda the point," Nikolai interjected.
Nikolai snapped open a third bottle filled with red Vigorants, knocking over a bottle of yellow Stratigents and scattering purple Awareant capsules across the dashboard. Hina turned to Eli, who simply shrugged, keeping his eyes on the road.
"Where the Hell did he run off to?"
Aaron had become suspicious after the tenth minute. At twenty minutes, his doubts were further reinforced. Had Hank become lost? Aaron somehow doubted it. After ten more minutes, he knew something had gone wrong. It didn't take thirty minutes to take a piss.
He debated to himself as to whether or not he should go searching off for him. There was nothing wrong with that, right? It wouldn't seem too suspicious to be worried about the fact that your partner got lost or had a kidney failure.
For a second, the worst possible outcome appeared in his head. The next, he pushed it all the way in the back of his skull. No, there was no way Hank would realize anything. All of the loose ends were covered.
Aaron clenched his fists. Then why was it taking so long?
"I should have gone with him, damn it!"
Just as he started his run towards the direction his partner ran off to, Hank turned the corner around a tree. Their foreheads collided, causing both of them to fall onto their rears.
Hank grabbed at his head. "Aaron… what the fuck man?!"
"I'd like to ask you the same thing!" Aaron yelled, jumping to his feet. "I thought you said you wanted to take a piss, not jerk off behind some rocks!"
"What? Of course not! I just had to take a dump also, that's all!" Hank shouted back, also getting up. "And anyway, if I had to jerk off, it'd take way longer-"
"Shut up, ugh!" Aaron turned around, his blood pressure rising. "What the fuck is wrong with you tonight? You never used to dick around like this!"
"I'd like to ask you the same thing."
Aaron froze, turning to Hank again.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing," Hank said, sweeping the back of his pants as his voice returned to its usual state. "You wanted me to hurry up, right? Well, here I am, so lead the way."
Aaron glared at Hank for a few seconds before resuming their original route. The last time he felt this uneasiness in his stomach was when Ryder told him to run.
He shouldn't have ran.
"Hank-"
"Aaron, can you give me an estimate as to how far this place is from here?"
"What? Oh, can't really say for sure."
"You said we were close. I'm getting tired."
"Yeah, I did! But... ugh, okay, fine! Two miles down, but don't count on me being entirely right."
"Straight down this path we're on, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Okay."
Even though their pace didn't change, something felt different about the walk. The unsettling feeling grew worse; now Aaron felt like he was the one who needed to go to the bathroom.
It distracted him from the fact that he couldn't hear Hank's footsteps anymore.
Aaron stopped, looking behind himself. The worst-case scenario was starting to look less and less improbable. By the time he had turned the full 360 degrees, he realized that Hank…
… was still there.
A wave of relief crashed down on Aaron, but he suppressed the urge to sigh. He opened his mouth to ask why he was lagging behind so-
"Where are we going, Aaron."
Aaron's throat clicked as the words that were about to escape it drowned. Any idiot could hear that this wasn't a question.
"I already told you, didn't I? Did you forget already? We're just going to-"
"You weren't the only one who was lying."
The rest of the words that would have left his mouth were massacred. The stench of lies that reeked from dead syllables had become olfactible.
"Wh-What are you talking about, Hank?" Aaron asked, struggling to maintain composure. "Did that bathroom break mess with your head or something?"
"You could say that," Hank said. He looked up from the ground. "But that's probably because I wasn't taking a bathroom break."
Aaron forced on a knowing smile.
"So... what were you doing?"
Hank looked and pointed towards a tree standing on the apex of the hill they climbed.
"I wanted to take a clearer look as to what was in front of us, so I spent some time looking for a tall tree. Once I climbed it, guess what I found for miles? Absolutely fucking nothing. No buildings, landmarks, not even a hotdog stand. Just a lake. Now, isn't that suspicious?"
Hank focused his eyes back onto Aaron's. Aaron recognized the gaze he cast; it was the same one that he wore when they first started initiation with 574. The one that slowly melted away after the countless months they spent together as a team fighting the BOTs, memorizing pressure points with Shane, the squadrons in the Holo-Chamber, and every single AAHW member that had the unfortunate circumstance to cross the Madness Squadron before everything went to complete shit.
It was easy to recognize, because he saw those same eyes look back at him every time he stared into a mirror.
"You can't have been lying to me, right, Aaron?"
It was at this point that Aaron realized the distance between himself and Hank was optimal firing range. Too far for Aaron to lunge in and disarm Hank, but just far enough for the bullets to become hard to evade. There was not a spot of cover in sight. It could not have been a coincidence.
How long had he known?
"I suspected from the start," Hank said, as if he could read Aaron's thoughts, "The moment we reached this forest, it got worse. I thought it wouldn't make sense for an AAHW base to be located here. But I put my suspicions aside. There's no way that Aaron could waste my time like this, I had thought. You were in such a hurry though, as if we had some kind of appointment to catch. Maybe you wanted us to have some kind of accident?"
Now Aaron was the one who couldn't control his breathing… or was that too a part of the facade Hank put up?
"So I pretended to be tired," Hank continued. "Staggered about. Breathed heavily. And, once I got my chance, I made sure for myself. So, I've come clean. It's your turn."
Hank presented his MP5. His index finger rested gently on the trigger.
"Where are we going, Aaron?"
Aaron bit the bottom of his lip. It was over. It was totally over. But…
Ryder.
He had to do it for Ryder.
"Hank," Aaron said, walking forwards and extending his arms as if offering a hug. "Listen, I-"
"Stand right there. Not a step closer."
By instinct, Aaron stopped in his tracks. He lowered his arms and moved them slowly towards his back. They held their glares for a few seconds, each with a different kind of hatred to the other.
"Why were you in such a hurry?"
None of the muscles in Aaron's body could respond. There was no logical solution to this; he was stuck in an absolute checkmate. Perhaps The Professor would accept Hank's corpse as an exchange for his brother. It was a slim possibility, but it was better than impossibility...
"Hands where I can see them!"
"They have Ryder!" Aaron burst out, eyes watering up. "They have my fucking brother! And the only thing they would give him back for is you!"
Hank lowered his weapon. He didn't want to believe it, but considering everything that was unfolding now, even the worst of the nightmare shouldn't faze him anymore.
It shouldn't have.
"You were trading me away?" Hank asked, his voice cracking. "Was that it?"
Only Aaron's hands shook in reply. Hank's grip on his weapon tightened, tears beginning to fog his own vision, too.
"I trusted you."
"What did you expect me to do, huh? Abandon him? He wasn't always an asshole, you know. You know what they did to him? Of course not. They vivisected him when he was a kid. They fucking cut him open and sewed him back together! And guess who got to see the whole thing first hand? Guess fucking who?!"
"You should've told me!" Hank's voice rose to match Aaron's, taking a step back for the step forward Aaron took. "You should have told me. We could've figured something out. That's how we worked things out back then. When Aidan fought you in the locker room. When everyone else in the squad thought you were the weak link. We figured it out together!"
"You think shit's that fucking simple? Think you'd be able to just solve everything with logic and reasoning, right? I didn't have a choice, Hank. There was no time and there wasn't going to be any compromises. It was this or nothing!"
Aaron took two steps forward. Hank took two steps back.
"Aaron, I swear, if you take one more step forward…"
"What, Hank? You'll shoot?" Aaron laughed. "There's nothing else to tell. You don't know what's it's like knowing that your family is on the line. I kept Ryder sane. Ryder kept me sane. But now? Everyone fucking abandoned Ryder. Fuck the Anti-AAHW, fuck the AAHW - I just wanted a future with the only person left alive in my family. Is there anything wrong with that?!"
A flashing image of Julia came back to Hank's mind. When she died, Aaron's voice was his voice when he screamed at 574. A voice of utter anguish and desperation. A pleading voice, not to another person, but to a God that didn't seem to listen to anyone anymore like He used to in all those religious fairytales.
Aaron took the step forward, arms raised.
"You gonna shoot me, Hank?"
Hank annulled the feelings that came from his train of thought. He already knew it better than most people. Logic does not bless one's mind when one is Seeing Red.
He let his MP5 respond to Aaron's challenge. Aaron ducked his head, then realized the gun wasn't aimed for his head in the first place; rather, an invisible spot, an inch above his shoulder.
For one second, Aaron stood stock-still. The next, he lunged forwards, clearing the distance with deceptive speed and forcing Hank's firing arm upwards. Hank fired by reflex, four claps of thunder echoing throughout the forest, drowning the cricket songs and the distant rumble of a Jeep, fast approaching.
A/N: What's up guys! I know it's been quite a while, but rest assured, that time's been used for more than what you see here! Just like how we divided up Chapters 37 and 38 (Quintessence) into two parts, the same will happen here. The second half is already 3100 words in, so hopefully by Monday, you'll be seeing the second part!
Also like Chapters 37 and 38, there will be no Credits for this chapter; you'll see them in the second part. Reason being is that there's no point adding Credits to a chapter that's only going to be up a few days before the next instead of just compiling it all at the end of the second part.
That being said, thanks for your continued patience and support! Hopefully it was worth the wait and you've enjoyed this part!
See you guys Monday. ;)
~Spirit
