Thomas didn't take long to start looking like himself again, to change out of his utterly ruined clothing and into a dark suit. As she had ever since he'd lost his hand Vivika did his tie for him then went to sit with Zach on the gray sofa on the other side of the room while Kelly helped to mask Thomas as human again with the case of make-up she's brought with her. He peered into a mirror as he muttered something about something but Vivika didn't listen, just continued to admire her ring with young Zach Goodweather.
"You and Mister Eichhorst are really married?" Zach asked for what felt like the eighteenth time. "Does this mean you won't be around as much?"
Oh if only it did mean that. To not have to deal with the child and his constant temper tantrums and constant childishness.
Vivika shook her head, best to provide the boy comfort. "Of course I'll always be here, Zach. As if having a husband could keep me away from you."
A Klondike bar could keep her away. Vivika hated Zach, had pitied him at first but she'd long ago moved to hate. Still, she'd happily keep him alive and happy for as long as their master demanded it.
Kelly and Thomas continued to talk about something, probably their ever eternal glory, for a few minutes and then he rose from his seat and went to the bomb laying in its case on the table. Vivika couldn't stop the small, loving smile which spread across her lips; that was her all-powerful Thomas. The raven-haired beauty adored the Strigoi underneath, his real face, but Vivika was quite happy with the act and display of his mask.
"Zach," began Eichhorst "would you like to see what is inside?"
"Sure."
The boy had no idea how close to the end they were now, absolutely no concept of it. Maybe it was childhood innocence or perhaps it Zach was just stupid.
"Come." Eichhorst ordered softly and everyone gathered around the table, not just the Goodweather child.
"Wow." Was all Zach could say when he flicked the case open to reveal the bomb inside.
"The detonator and the device are synced." Eichhorst pushed a couple of buttons. "Once the device is armed the red light comes on." Vivika honestly had no idea why he bothered. "And also on the detonator. See?" He showed Zach the device before thinking better of himself and turned to Kelly then handed it over. "I'll leave the detonatorwith you, it is armed now. Keep it for The Master." He closed the case, little snaps sounded as he locked it. "He and he only is to press the button, is that clear?"
"Yes." She agreed knowing better than to argue with the stronger Strigoi.
"The Master has an important meeting at Stonheart headquarters upstairs once it is finished the final phasewill commence." Helpfully Kelly handed Thomas his coat while Zach essentially snuggled against Vivika annoyingly, she'd have rather he'd not but the boy was always touchy-feely with her. Thomas took a breath. "What an honor it is to fulfil the final stage of the plan."
Kelly handed over a large brimmed hat and brushed non-existent lint from his shoulders.
She smiled. "Who else but you?"
Thomas didn't respond, just turned to his new wife and the child.
"Keep an eye on your mother, young man."
"Yes, Sir." Zach agreed instantly completely unaware they only said it to make him feel included and as if they cared.
Vivika finally managed to shuffle out of Zach's grasp and rounded him to her darling Thomas, Kelly stepped away from her knowing better that to get between the couple. He had his hands full but that didn't stop Vivika wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him; not excessively passionately but there was most certainly love in there.
"I love you, husband."
They kissed again. Maybe she should have been concerned with how quickly she had become accustom to that word. It hadn't been a wedding, nothing like she'd ever seen or heard of before but The Master had said it himself, this hadn't happened before. She loved Thomas and Thomas loved her, didn't matter that they weren't the same species or that she'd not worn a white dress.
"And I you, my darling wife."
After a moment Vivika finally released her Strigoi so he could pick up the bomb case. Oh so many humans were going to die.
"I shall be back for the three of you shortly."
Eichhorst turned and walked away but paused after a few seconds and turned back to his band of cohorts; specifically his ever loyal wife.
"Oh, my love, Mister Desei was located alive, yes?" Vivika nodded. "Have him meet me at the harbor right away, I have things to discuss with him."
"Certainly, it is your assistants job after all."
"On the contrary." He flashed her that demonic smile of his. "You are now The Master's left hand. Mister Desei is to be our confederate, you will be in charge of him."
Thomas left then and Vivika just stood there with a grin, she quite liked the idea of having underlings of her very own. Yes, she'd made informants over her time with Thomas but not full on underlings.
Zach peered up at his surrogate sister. "You have a new job, Vivi?"
She nodded without a second thought. "Yes, you could call it … chief human liaison."
It was a waiting game after that, Thomas had his job to do while the rest of them had little choice but to sit and wait until they were next needed. So close to the end now that Vivika could practically taste it.
Sometime later and Zach had found himself a magazine to read which had blissfully kept him quiet a while, while Vivika sat beside him enjoying the silence. Kelly though hadn't sat done, left the room or done anything even once. Just paced back and forth as if she expected something to go very wrong. Bad luck, Vivika would have called it, but then Kelly grew eerily still and started to mutter about not being able to hear their master.
Vivika raised an eyebrow. "Can't hear him? He only went to- Setrakian."
This was a problem, she'd seen the blank look on Thomas' face before and he'd nearly killed her. Zach and Vivika stood as Kelly slowly approached them.
"Stay behind me, Z. I've seen this before."
Cautiously they rounded the coffee table, the entire time Vivika made sure to keep the Goodweathers separated lest the boy die and anger their master. They backed away towards the door careful to keep every movement slow, running would just set her off and they couldn't have that.
"The Master's upstairs, let's just go see him." Zach tried to reason and for once Vivika was pleased for Zach's inability to shut up. "Come on, Mom."
"You want to listen to your boy, Kelly." Said Vivika slowly. "Our master is upstairs and if he is quiet like you say then he may require us."
The stinger appeared between Kelly's lips but she didn't attack, instead Zach's words must have gotten to her because she managed to put it away then silently, blankly headed past both her son and Vivika towards the door. Eichhorst's new bride and Zach shared a questioning look.
"What's happening, Vivi?"
Vivika sighed. "Her connection to The Master has been severed for some reason. She and Thomas have the most control so they won't go completely screwy just yet. I'll keep an eye on her, you bring the detonator, it can't be left behind."
The boy did as asked and grabbed the detonator then rushed after his Mom and the woman he'd been indoctrinated to see as a big sister. Slowly they headed to the elevator so they could go up to Stoneheart. Zach held his mother's hand the entire way up to Eldritch's – The Master's – office, though if that was for Zach's benefit or to keep Kelly calm Vivika didn't know; didn't care.
"You okay, Mom?"
Vivika honestly didn't want to put Kelly down, it would have been bloody and caused a mess in a perfectly good elevator, but if it came down to Kelly or herself Vivika would blow the bitch's brains to hell.
Zach clung to his mother and slowly led her out of the elevator once the doors had rolled open with Vivika following along behind. All three stopped dead though when they found no master and Ephraim Goodweather in his place. Shit, grumbled Vivika's mind. Eph looked up at them all from his seat at Eldritch's desk where he looked to have been patching himself up.
"Zach?" Asked the man with some trepidation.
"Dad?"
Fortunately Vivika didn't have to listen to their pathetic and awkward family reunion because Kelly suddenly launched at her husband, the stinger was out and she wanted blood. Zach seemed horrified while Vivika's expression was much closer to that of a bloodthirsty man watching wrestling.
"No, stop! Please stop, stop. Mom, get off him. Just stop." The boy whined. "Vivi, stop her. Please just stop. Vivi?!"
The raven-haired beauty flashed her green eyes down at the boy. "The only way I have of stopping them is shooting one of them."
Young Zach didn't seem too keen on that idea. Vivika would have shot Goodweather and eliminate a thorn in their side rather happily but watching wife kill husband while their son watched amused her more.
"Please, Vivi."
The kid continued to plea and she sighed. She couldn't just shoot Eph, annoyingly, Zach needed to continue seeing Viivka as the perfect big sister type, which only left one option. She managed to slip between the pair surprisingly easy, arms stretched out to stop the fight.
"Kelly, shush. It's alright but I need you to stop, okay? Zach needs you to stop this."
The Master couldn't have been forced from his host again or Kelly would have already gone completely off the rails. Instead of attacking the stinger started to retract and a spark flashed inside her dark eyes that said the doting mother and loyal servant was still in there.
"There you go. Calm down, you're okay."
The drunken asshole known as Eph shuffled forwards then with sudden heavy steps and opened his damn mouth only to set her off again. Before Vivika could process what the fuck was happening Kelly had grabbed her and thrown her so violently across the large room that she bounced off the re-enforced glass windows. Glass smashed loudly a noise akin to nails on a chalkboard when one's face was doing the shattering. She landed with a dense thud on the cold ground surrounded by shards and a steadily growing pool of her own blood.
"Vivika!" Zach screamed but she didn't move.
The death match between his parents started up again while Vivika lay on the opposite side of the room either unconscious or dead. He called out to his parents to stop but his pleas fell on deaf ears, his mother had lost control and Eph just wanted to kill … or at least that was what it looked like to Zach.
Everything stopped when Eph managed to stab Kelly through the throat, three people just stood in silence and complete shock. Kelly fell to the ground never to move again; his father had killed his mother. Zach's eyes darkened.
"Are you alright? Who is she?" The doctor gestured loosely to Vivika. Zach didn't answer, hardly even looked at his father. "It's over. It's all over now." He flashed his eyes up to Zach. "You're safe. You're o-"
Ephraim fell silent as Zach revealed the detonator in his hand.
"You know what that is?"
Zach snapped the casing open. "Yeah."
Quickly Goodweather scrambled to his feet despite the pain his wound caused him, panic in his eyes.
"Give that to me."
Vivika shuffled in the sharp pieces of glass as she returned to consciousness, her head hurt, fuck, everything hurt. Dizzily she looked up to the huge window only to be smashed in the face by a cool breeze which most certainly didn't help her headache. She couldn't remember what had happened, Zach was yelling and then … pain. Shit! So much pain. Zach screamed something else then, 'I hate you' by the sounds of it but she was more focused on pushing herself to her feet. The next thing she saw was the Statue of Liberty off in the distance, there one minute, a cloud of dust the next. The shockwave rushed towards them … they needed to get out.
The doctor went to stare out the broken window as Vivika tried to stand up only to have Zach appear and help her to her feet. The boy helped to prop her up as they quickly headed for the emergency stairs while she continued to bleed. The pain made walking difficult, her clothes were ripped and destroyed as well. Only a few hours previous Thomas had been the one in tattered clothes and near death but now it seemed it was Vivika's turn. She knew she should have just let Kelly and Ephraim go at it.
When they got almost to the bottom of the stairwell Zach shifted his hand a little down her back and then gasped in horror.
"Oh God, Vivi. You've got a massive shard of glass in your back."
That would have explained the godawful agony. Careful not to cut herself worse than she already had been, Vivika reached back to locate said bit of glass. Zach had been right, it was a particularly large and jagged piece and it had managed to lodge itself deep into her body and had most likely gone straight through her left kidney.
"I'll pull it out."
"No!" She screamed. "No. Leave it where it is."
"Why?" He asked as they kept moving.
"Because it may be the only thing keeping me from bleeding out. We need to get to the street."
They carried on down the concrete stairs, and Vivika suddenly regretted wearing stilettos. It had looked sexy but had turned into a pretty bad idea.
Eventually the pair managed to make it down to the street which they found plagued by death, destruction and utter chaos. There were people screaming out for loved ones and the sky had turned an almost demonic reddish color. Zach glanced around horrified but Vivika was far more concerned with where The Master had been taken; and if Thomas was alright.
They walked – well, stumbled – a few feet into the street as the blood stained woman tried desperately to think of what to do next, but then, as if by magic, a shadow emerged from the dust; Thomas! The former Nazi strutted towards looking strangely immaculate in his hat, sunglasses and black coat.
"Where's Kelly?" Eichhorst asked quickly.
"My dad … he killed her."
"I'm sorry, Zach." He wasn't and Vivika knew it. Thomas took the used detonator when Zach held it up and rested a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Well done, son. Thanks to you we are one again. Come." He smiled.
Vivika only managed a single step before a thunderous spark of agony ripped through her slender body, from deep within where the glass continued to cut against her inner flesh up her spine locking up all her joints. Thomas' smile faded instantly only to be replaced by utter concern as he launched to help keep her upright.
Zach anticipated Eichhorst next question. "Mom threw Vivi at the wall. She's got a huge bit of glass in her."
"Hurts like a fucking bitch!" She told her husband to lighten the mood.
"And yet you are oddly aroused." The German muttered more to himself than anyone else.
He rounded Vivika to see the vicious shard of glass which stuck out of her side and easily yanked it out without any warning. Vivika screamed but Eichhorst noticed the small wanton breathlessness that went along with it; his beautiful girl had always enjoyed pain. The Strigoi and Zach watched curiously as her skin oozed the White then knitted itself back together like she hadn't just been half way to passing out. Thomas raised an eyebrow, even he probably wouldn't have healed that fast.
"More than human indeed."
For the first time since she'd woken up Vivika stood and carried her full weight by herself, she stretched almost obscenely and a tiny smile settled on her lips.
"I actually feel better." She admitted.
Thomas pressed a small and gentle kiss to her forehead. "Because you have healed, my love. Come."
He took his wife by the hand then and pulled her along towards the dusty streets, she quickly latched on to Zach so he wouldn't get lost and together the three headed for the next stage of The Master's plan.
Yes, she certainly regretted the stilettos.
