Chapter 14
"Where do you think you're going?" Mandora asked as she watched Slythe stalk down the hallway.
"There's business to settle," he didn't act surprised that she was hanging out in the hallway near the Control Room but he was. He didn't stop however.
"Oh there is but you better let us handle it. You might not care if you live or die but you've got people invested in you now. They care and to throw everything you've been through away would be a disservice to them," those words from the blonde made him stop. He whirled around.
"You think they really care?" He wanted to know.
"Well I know Lion-O does. He took a big risk to not only himself but his people and the people of this planet by taking you in and not executing you like so many would have. He has a great capacity to wish the best of people. It can help him be a great King but he's also proven that he's more than ready to defend this planet with his life, even if that is more than what people are asking for. So in your mind you think you're protecting him by going out there and probably getting yourself killed but instead he would look at it as somehow failing you; like he didn't do enough. Personally, he's done more than most would have with a sworn enemy, no matter how much they seemed to have changed. So go ahead and do what you want but know what wake you leave as you go," Mandora told him. Slythe gave her a look and she just turned and walked away down the hall toward her quarters. The Mutant frowned and turned back around. He headed for the front door.
It opened and head headed out – not very far but enough that if the Mutants were watching, they'd notice him. He stood there debating what Mandora said. Lion-O and Panthro had accepted his help when they could have not bothered to trust him. Cheetara had thanked him for finding her box for her and had warmed up a little faster than the others. He could not fault the others for their wariness. Still they had become this awkward little family. No one batted an eye when he offered to help with something or to do his part. They sat together for meals and he was included in meetings. They let him use the Control Room for guard duty. He had every in and could roam the facility at will.
The Evil Chaser had been right so he did what he thought he should. Slythe started a series of hand signals. If they were truly watching the Lair, then they would know what he was doing. He repeated them three times. If they didn't see him or didn't respond then he knew that it couldn't be the woman he knew. She was truly gone.
Slythe waited for five minutes. Nothing. He nodded and headed back inside. His friend was truly dead; as the rumors had suggested. She would have listened to reason, maybe even understood what happened.
"So you get what you wanted?" There was Mandora. She hadn't gone that far. In her hands was a bottle of brown liquor and a few shot glasses.
"My friend is truly dead. She would have answered by now," he heaved a sigh.
"Come on. I know a great little spot to share these," she said. He nodded and followed her down the hallway toward a small dining room used for private meetings between Lion-O and leaders of the peoples of Third Earth.
"You ever think that maybe she is alive but whoever up there is holding her hostage?" Mandora wondered as she poured them a drink.
"For years?" Slythe raised an eyebrow.
"Well one can dream, right?" She wondered. The Mutant slammed the shot back.
"I suppose. Perhaps she was doing it for her own safety. She was a wanted woman," Slythe admitted as the blonde drank hers.
"I saw that in the record seems your friend, Arzu. She liked to piss people off huh?" Mandora asked as she poured them another.
"She had her own values and they often clashed with the main views of the Mutant High Council," he nodded before slamming back the second drink.
"So you two…" Mandora trailed off. She smirked and then drank.
"Before my wife. I think we would have gotten married had she not been sent on the run soon after our one year anniversary," Slythe told her. The blonde was surprised at how much he'd opened up. Perhaps with Arzu's possible death, he didn't see any harm in it. That's when she got an alert in her helmet, not allowing them to have a third drink.
"We have something. Off to the Control Room with us," Mandora told him.
To Be Continued…