Eighteen's departure mortified Seventeen.
Kate's warm grip around his shoulders didn't really comfort him, even though the contact with her did good to him.
Mother and son spent long moments like that, he with his head against her shoulder, in silence; it was as if a part of the male twin had come loose,even if he knew he didn't lose it, it still hurt: she was his sister, they had always been together.
Growing up was strange.
He spent time mulling over the collection of photos their mother had taken over the years, especially those of him as a child.
He hadn't had the courage to look at his personal collection: too many emotions in the last two months, he hadn't finished assimilating them yet.
Eighteen said she had found meaning to her life; she hadn't come back after reviving Bruno and Seventeen pictured her happy with Krillin.
He also thought of Sixteen, who had decided to join the police. He had learned that the android had become Captain Weiss' assistant and he laughed picturing him forced into the role of a policeman. He knew, although, that having Sixteen's choice been personal, his friend must be fulfilled.
And he? What would he do now that Eighteen was gone?
He would continue to have fun with cars, divide his existence between his sister's house and Kate's, live with her until she died and then start over and try something else to do.
Going back to being a gangster no longer seemed a viable option.
Kate wanted to help her son at that moment in his life, he looked so dissatisfied, almost bored. It was possible that he was experiencing a simple moment of crisis; between the two, Lapis was certainly the least inclined to overthinking and melancholy.
There was one thing he still had to know and that Kate had hesitated to mention so far. She didn't want to spread him too thin.
-Lapis,...-
-Seventeen.-
-... do you know that I wasn't the only one waiting for you? I didn't mean to rush you before, but I think by now you should tell Carly you're back.-
-Telling who?-
/
Carly was his girlfriend. Possibly the love of his life.
Kate had invited him to take a look at his personal photos that had been carefully placed in a box inside his closet.
They portrayed himself in the company of a girl with ginger hair. Her skin was very pale, and she looked happy with him. Although she was conventionally less attractive than women like Eighteen or even Kate, to Seventeen she looked absolutely beautiful. Large eyes, radiant smile, full breasts, he could have fallen in love with her.
But he only nibbled on the hem of his shirt, discouraged, sighing with the photographs still in his hands:
-I don't remember her.-
Kate had not been in contact with her for some time, but she scribbled a name and phone number on a piece of paper:
-When you feel up to it, you can call her father George.-
Kate wanted to hope that seeing Carly would make Lapis happy, but on a practical level she had no idea if she was still available, or of what had become of her.
For his part, Seventeen could only blindly trust Kate's word and wasn't sure he wanted to; not only did he find out once again that what really mattered was a blank in his head but he was always convinced that there was no chance he could have started from scratch with that human girl.
Zero chance.
And no, Eighteen, the dilemma went far beyond the chance of injuring her with a thrust of the back, in the bedroom; he didn't want to spend his life with someone who belonged with a dramatic past, someone who would never understand him and who would always, more or less consciously, fear him.
Out there, people weren't Kate. Kate understood because she was his mother, but what about everyone else?
He preferred never to see Carly again than to go through the joy of being with her again and then undergo a refusal generated by an irreversible incompatibility. He thought of how much he had loved the look in the eyes of Cloe Mafia's men, when their animal instincts had suggested to them that he wasn't like them.
But thinking of seeing that same ancestral fear in this Carly's eyes terribly upset him.
It seemed to him there was nothing that could hurt more than seeing his abnormality reflected as terror in the eyes of someone he loved. He would have educated himself to live without her. In time, he would no longer miss her.
-Okay, I'll take care of it,- he lied, taking the piece of paper from Kate's hand.
He doubted his mother didn't see right through him, but he trusted in her respect.
He thought back to what he was capable of: when he had decided to eradicate the Commando Magenta he had destroyed hundreds of lives by simply raising his hand. And he had enjoyed it.
He wasn't his sister, he hadn't said no to destruction, he didn't need to find someone who could help him be more human. Someone like him would surely be a shitty boyfriend, no human girl would ever dream of a city-busting, flying terminator.
It was a cowardly thing: wasn't the very powerful # 17 running away, now? For once he wanted to choose the easy way, believing it was the best for him.
It would have ended like that, it was better to be safe than sorry. In all that depressing brooding, he realized he wasn't done.
Remembering the Commando had brought him back to when he had stayed at the ruined house and had questioned that terrified henchman.
"Our main client is a squire in the Yunzabit Heights," he had said.
The Commando hadn't yet been completely eradicated. Leaving their main client alive was like tearing the stem of a weed and leaving the roots in the soil.
He had to kill that gentleman too.
/
Kate was returning home from the underground station.
She heard the cell phone ring and reluctantly answered Ronan, the podcast producer who still didn't want to throw in the towel with her.
What did he want? That famous invitation to lunch? And Saturday it was, at least he would no longer torment her. She was still walking down the street when she saw Lapis's unmistakable silhouette spurt out the window.
Kate called out loud but he was already too high in the sky. Still anxious, Kate dropped her coat and purse on the sofa and listened with bated breath to the muffled ringing of Lapis's cell phone.
He had left it in his room...
In the kitchen she found a note:
I'll be back, don't worry. See you soon.
/
The first thing the cyborg did was to go get Sixteen.
The policemen watched Lapis in person with astonishment, as he walked in with his usual indolence, well known to most. They watched him go to the desk of Sixteen, the big guy who was now working with the captain.
-Are they all looking at you because you were a thug as a human?-
Sixteen looked down at his friend, who waited at a safe distance as if he wanted him to accompany him somewhere.
Seventeen laughed to himself:
-I want you to come with me. For a stroll.-
-Are you getting bored? Where's Eighteen?-
-Ah, don't tell me about it.-
She had chosen Krillin. That hound-eyed garden gnome; of course he was bored, but he was also eager to go on an adventure with his best and only friend.
/
-You shall not kill humans…-
Sixteen followed Seventeen in flight to one of the most remote places on Earth.
The Yunzabit Heights were a large island that had once been united with the North City district. The isthmus that united them had then been submerged by the ocean and now those mountains had become almost a country in their own right, separated in every way from the main continent. It was a windswept, sparsely populated tax haven, in other words a perfect place for unsavoury characters to stash dirty money and live away from the hustle and bustle of big cities. Of course, regular people lived there too.
-Maybe, maybe not…-
Seventeen knew that Sixteen had already noticed the glint of the gun in his pocket. Although he hadn't hoped for it, the android was still following him.
In fact, he had followed him only because Botz was at the police dog training camp and therefore he had no one to look after; perhaps he too felt nostalgic.
Soon, the duo saw Yunzabit's sharp rocky spires pierce the clouds, and they knew they had arrived. From the top they could see only a few scattered villages, a large castle dominated the top of what looked to be the only town worthy of the name.
-At least leave anyone else alone …-
Sixteen hoped that Seventeen would not make a bloodbath; it was wrong, he shall not do it.
Cloe Mafia had taught him a lot about the nature of humans but for Sixteen killing creatures so helpless, however evil, seemed unnatural. When the two of them landed in the inner courtyard of that huge mansion that looked like a castle, a handful of men in suits had them at gunpoint:
-You can't enter without Lord Shomu's permission.-
They were all like that. You could not enter the Commando HQ, you could not enter Lord Shomu's place... Sixteen thought humans really cared about the places where they lived.
Seeing that the red-haired giant and the boy with the orange scarf had come closer, the security guards fired. It was a storm of bullets, there were men everywhere and they were firing from various angles in that courtyard.
Exactly as had happened in Central City, Sixteen was once again disappointed: helpless beings, yes, who didn't hesitate to attack with the intention of killing.
While not approving, the android could understand the iron fist the cyborg always preferred to use. With a condescending sigh, Seventeen continued to let himself be hit and pointed the gun.
/
In the meantime, the aforementioned Lord Shomu had barricaded himself in his huge bedroom, armed only with a hand grenade and the desire to throw it to the face of anyone wreaking havoc in his inner courtyard. Leaning out of a window he had seen about fifteen of his bodyguards run away like rabbits with their hands up, as two suspicious figures approached with slow and relentless steps towards the great door of his house, unhindered, as if it were a walk of pleasure.
"Why don't you stop them, you good for nothing?"
Lord Shomu was outraged.
He would fire those gorillas from first to last, it didn't matter if such a sudden dismissal would put them in trouble.
Due to the nature of the trade that he garrisoned, Lord Shomu had many enemies and the job of security staff was to keep out any type of intruder. And clearly those men hadn't proved worthy to defend him.
-The police are coming up here. You will stay put, understand? They are close to finding you here …-
Old Shomu kicked a boy dozing on his large circular bed, hugging a few pillows.
The young man winced and moaned when Shomu grabbed him by his tied wrists and pushed him violently into a closet.
With the hand grenade in his fist and drops of sweat rolling from his forehead to his chin, Lord Shomu prepared to put an end to that invasion.
But he trembled all the same when the locked door shook and immediately after a big fist attached to a big arm dressed in green penetrated a panel of solid wood and, finding the key in the lock, opened it from the outside.
"Mummy..."
The old man paralyzed momentarily when he saw the rest of the body to which that fist belonged: that couldn't be a real person, it was a titan. And he certainly didn't look like a policeman.
The boy by his side had normal human proportions but didn't look less threatening.
He had heard that those thugs of the Commando Magenta were all dead. That news had made him furious, his fortune would suffer. He didn't care if those two were actual cops or hired assassins sent by some miraculous Commando survivor. He had already suffered enough damage.
Fiercely, Shomu threw the hand grenade and watched the titan grab it like a golf ball and burn it before it could explode, using a kind of yellow light that had diffused from his palm.
Shomu pulled the boy with the tied hands out of the closet. He drew a knife from his belt and placed the cold blade against his hostage's throat.
He grinned, hiding his fear:
-If you-
The sudden shot didn't touch a hair on the boy's head, but silenced Shomu forever. The squire collapsed on his back with a small hole in his forehead.
Seventeen pointed the gun again, but Sixteen put a hand on his shoulder and dissuaded him with a stern look, shaking his head.
The hostage boy had instinctively shrugged and looked incredulously at the other boy, withdrawing the gun with wide and slow gestures, so that he understood that after all he didn't intend to terminate him.
Everything had happened in general silence.
Now that Lord Shomu was dead, the boy didn't even seem to feel the pain of his bruises and of the ropes. He felt himself again, a huge smile spread across his face and he darted towards the other boy screaming with joy.
-Thanks! Thanks, thanks, I love you!-
He passed his arms around Seventeen's chest and squeezed him, sinking his head into his scarf. He stopped only when he realized that the object of his adoration was giving him a very hard look.
Careful not to break anything Seventeen broke free of that embrace and snapped the ropes.
Sixteen looked at the former hostage as one looks at a curious animal at the zoo:
-What's your name?-
-Seriously? I'm Mr. Yunzabit.-
He was the recently elected most handsome young man on the island!
The duo was still watching him, expecting a decent introduction. The boy straightened his back and ran a hand through his hair:
-Reuben Rose! But you can call me Rosie.-
With their gaps in local celebrities, the cyborg and the android exchanged an amused look.
Rosie had recently been kidnapped by Lord Shomu, who in addition to sucking money from whoever crossed his path also had particular tastes when it came to choosing someone to warm his bed. Now the boy was bouncing boldly around the room, talking on the phone in a high-pitched voice.
-I was finally able to call my parents! Let's go by the shore, they'll meet me there. Will you accompany me?-
Sixteen and Seventeen followed the boy, crossing the mansion under the astonished eyes of the staff and security guards.
What were they looking at?
They reached a small beach and Rosie began to scan the horizon:
-Shomu was a real tyrant here. I couldn't call for help, he would have killed my parents. If you hadn't come to free me I would have been his toy boy, eww ... he kidnapped me immediately after my coronation as Mr. Yunzabit. Fortunately all he did was beating me... -
Seventeen noticed his bruises. He thought that nobody would have missed Shomu.
-In any case you, husky ginger, are a real stud. How big can you be? What prowess! That jawline and that mohawk, whew!-
Rosie looked with admiration at Sixteen, before circling Seventeen:
-But you, my dear, you're a gem: that angel face and those pecs, and you can shoot…-
Seventeen involuntarily stepped back and frowned:
-I could spit in your eye and blind you.-
Rosie clicked his tongue, covering his shy face with his fists:
-Nah, dark angel, I don't like it rough. I'm super vanilla.-
Rosie thought that dark angel and husky ginger were together, and when he asked them to talk about it both of them gave him such a harsh look that Rosie preferred to shut up until he heard the propellers of the family helicopter. Then he waved, jumping as if he wanted to reach the sky.
-Reuben! Honey!-
He saw his mother running towards him as soon as the helicopter touched the beach.
His brother, sister and father followed and soon the whole Rose family was hugging with relief.
-But what happened? Did you run away?-
Mr. Rose had feared the worst from the moment he had received the ransom note. He hadn't even dared to call the police, as he had been ordered, but he was tormenting himself every day for not being able to overcome the fear of calling for help for his eldest son.
-No, two hot cops came to get me, thank you for sending them! Guys,...-
When Rosie turned around to look at his saviours, he was surprised not to see any trace of them.
/
Carly was awakened by Lillian shaking her, asking her insistently if she was okay. Startled, she opened her eyes and found Lillian sitting on her bed. She was already wearing her blue parka, she had already done her eyeliner and her pretty bun. Carly found herself all sweaty:
-What's going on, Lillian?-
-I have to go up to Chantey. Are you feeling well?-
Not that well. She had just abruptly woken from a dream she didn't remember.
Lillian had worried about Carly tossing and turning in bed over and over, all night; then while she was in the bathroom getting ready to join John at the hut by six o'clock, she had heard Carly make small screams and moans.
For a moment she had doubted that there was a man with her, given the particular timbre of her voice as she murmured things like "Keep going! Yes, like that!"
For a moment she hoped it wasn't Brent.
However, it seemed unlikely, it wasn't the first time Carly had done that.
-Nobody was here with you, weren't they?-
As sleepy as Carly was, she turned purple upon realizing that she had done it again.
The same dream: she saw herself in a hall, when she turned around she met Lapis's face and arms. He lifted and held her before laying her on the floor, while she was already waiting for him with her legs spread.
"Let go, my foot."
-Both you and I must have a good fuck, sooner or later, I'll find you someone: do you like Joel, by any chance? Pure-blooded jerk, I guarantee. Or maybe you prefer Brent? Brent says you're cute.-
Once again Lillian managed to make her laugh.
-No, thank you. You know I don't shag rangers.-
Carly was always so obstinate in believing that they were all nasty.
-...let's see who has the last laugh! Time for me to leave, they're waiting for me. See you.-
/
Lillian had no intention of going up to Chantey on foot, it was the most inconveniently placed watch point in the RNP but at least one could reach it via a nice wide dirt road.
She ended up not having to go, John told her to try once again to pick up Mrs. Poyaz. He and Brent would remain to watch the village for any landslides.
Noiresylve looked like a ghost village: walking through the streets Lillian only heard wind, birds and lapping of fountains-sink.
Arriving before the only house that was still occupied, Lillian mentally prepared herself for what she had to do. She used some breathing technique to calm her nerves and then watched her index finger meet the white doorbell button.
She rang a few times, but no one answered. Taking the hint, Lillian hit the carved solid wood:
-Clémence Poyaz, you must leave your home. Open the door immediately.-
Same motionless silence.
Everything looked perfect, it was a beautiful October day. What could have happened under such a splendid sky?
-Clémence Poyaz, last warning.-
Bang bang bang.
Lillian had hurt her knuckles. She didn't even think about taking down the door like they do it in the movies, she would have dislocated her shoulder. Just when she was about to lose her temper the door opened a tiny crack, letting out a light scent of dried herbs.
-You guys are still around! Shoo shoo shoo, shoo.-
The crack had soon turned into a wide-opened door and Mrs. Poyaz revealed to the young ranger her moon face: it looked like it had been trodden by force on a wide, square body dressed in a blue apron.
-Clémence, honour your name. Don't make me eat my heart out in an attempt to save your life.-
Lillian no longer knew what to say to that thick head. If not even the thought of dying could shake her, a common mortal like her had very little hope.
-Stop bothering me! Dull as doorknobs, you folks...I said I won't leave my home. I'm too old to be frightened by a stupid landslide.-
Assuming that there actually is a landslide and that you people are not making up plots to evict us and sell the land.
This Lillian read on the old lady's face, although she dared not say the words.
-Yes, I understand that you don't care. But if you allow me I do, because if you die I'm in trouble!-
Mrs. Poyaz scratched her sweet granny hairdo and put a hand on Lillian's arm:
-Come on, big girl, I'll make you a cup of tea. You look so embittered.-
Not knowing what to feel most offended by and now running out of options, Lillian grabbed that short, chubby woman taking advantage of her distraction. She started running away from the house towards her car, a distance that seemed longer because of Mrs. Poyaz twisting her arms and kicking with her little legs while lifted off the ground.
-Put me down, ah! Is this how you'd treat your mother, your grandmother?-
Lillian had already run a hundred yards, carrying eighty kilos worth of Mrs. Poyaz; suddenly tired, the girl put the old lady on the ground without letting go of her hand:
-To hell with kindness. Excuse me, Clem , but you're a HUGE SHITHEAD. You put yourself and all of us in danger, you don't listen to anyone.-
Perfect: she had insulted her and forcibly removed her from her home. Lillian would have a lot to explain to John ...
-I'll report you, you little bitch!-
-Go to hell, you understand? Go to hell! Come down to the valley with me now.-
The old woman continued to rant, tugging her arm from the unshakable grip of that exceptionally strong girl:
-I will…-
Lillian had heard it too. That slight tremor in her legs. That dark, deep crack that seemed to come out of the Earth itself. When Mrs. Poyaz suddenly stopped talking, they both turned in time to see a huge boulder, larger than a van, crashing into a large chalet in a curving path. The old woman looked at her gutted house without batting an eyelid; Lillian grimaced.
-I'm sorry, Clem…-
The rock had been catapulted directly from the mountain: a gigantic cloud of dust was released from one side of the valley while other boulders of that size hailed on Noiresylve.
Both women knew those were only the small ones, preparing the fall of a bigger chunk of mountain. Much bigger.
-Aaaaaahhh the landslide! Holy Kami, Great Priest and all the angels, run!-
Lillian couldn't understand the crazy hag's jibber jabber, but once again she found herself running desperately and carrying her:
-We will die! We will die, ranger!-
"Lillian ..."
Lillian struggled to run with the old witch clinging to her, tight as a ball. Hoping for something she couldn't name, Lillian crouched behind a stone wall, letting Mrs. Poyaz hug her.
She closed her eyes and covered her head:
"And so my time has come. A landslide in the mountains. The place I love most in the end betrays me, not that it's something new with the things or people I love. If I have to die at least I'll go as an MVP. Will anyone miss me? Too bad, I had just redone my henna and it was as red as I like it...Joel, fuck you! You had it crooked, you could never touch my G-spot. Fuck you too Bronwyn, I know that you talk ill behind my back with your little girlfriends. Goodbye John, thanks for being a good teacher. Brent, learn to be a proper ranger but keep on being a Viking. Carly get your man back, have many children and fly many birds of prey. I loved you three, you are my family...oh my, even Brent ?! Goodbye. Top Ranger out. "
The two women waited for death all snug in a kind of embrace, with their eyes closed.
Only when a low rumble moved the earth under their rear did they both realize they were alive.
-Ranger, look! Look, the landslide…-
Clémence was the first to look around, obsessively poking the girl:
-Ranger. Ranger?!-
Lillian was still squinting at the sunshine but realizing that she was whole, she jumped up.
-LILLIAN! Heck! My name is Lillian.-
She had five missed calls between John and Brent. Having just faced death, Lillian hadn't even heard the cell phone ring. While following Mrs. Poyaz towards the spot just outside Noiresylve where a piece of mountain as big as a building lay quiet, she replied to her excited colleague:
"What is it, Brent?"
"She replied...she replied! Yoo hoo! John, the Valkyrie is alive! I'm so relieved …"
She could have told him she was answering straight from Valhalla, but at that moment Lillian didn't have the nerve to joke. She looked up to the peaks, making more or less out the shape of Chantey but unable to see Brent, who certainly could see her.
"What is it? You are alive!"
"Let me talk to John."
"John is...in a meeting. Oh, I have to go. Holy cow Lil, you don't know what I just saw. What you missed out on."
"... Life, almost? Anyway tell John, when he's over with his meeting, that I'm taking Mrs. Poyaz to the hospital for tests, down in Neuve Ville. Don't worry, I'll join you tonight in Saint-Paul."
Lillian was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, Mrs. Poyaz was safe and both were leaving the devastated village on their own legs, unharmed.
"In a meeting, up at Chantey? Come on..."
If Lillian had immediately understood that Brent had lied to her, she still didn't know how that huge landslide had avoided Noiresylve.
It was crazy.
It was a miracle.
/
Lillian couldn't make it to the end of the day without being summoned by John to his office in Saint-Paul. They must have just returned from Chantey, and she had just had time to leave Clémence Poyaz to her family.
John said he had to talk to her, it was the first time in her career that Lillian felt worried: that Mrs. Poyaz matter was quite delicate, in all probability John was not satisfied.
What if he took the title of top ranger from her?
The girl took a deep breath and then opened the door to her boss's office.
She found him jokingly arguing with Brent. His secretary was stapling documents, leaving them on the desk where a very young man sat, intent on quickly leafing through a book.
What was it, his parents had forgotten him there?
Lillian saw that it was the bible , the textbook John gave to all rangers.
So a new colleague? Or since he looked younger than her, maybe a mascot...
-John, I'm sorry if I haven't handled Mrs. Poyaz well.-
-No, Lillian you're not here for that, you handled the lady very well. Good girl.-
-I really don't understand, the mountain has come down for real. What happened?-
Brent raised his chin in the direction of the reading boy:
-He happened.-
/
-And that's it: from today you will have two new disciples, Lillian. I bring you up and you bring them up: be my eyes and ears when I'm not around, will you? Now I leave you youngsters to introductions. Goodbye!-
When John was gone, the boy stood up and paced back and forth through the office. Lillian felt annoyed that he was ignoring her, but smiled:
-Um ... hello?-
-Hey.-
-Did you hear what the old man said? When he's not around you take orders from me.-
The newbie began to leaf through another document, still without looking at Lillian; he absent-mindedly moved a piece of hair that fell straight between his eyes.
-Oi! Are you listening?-
Annoyed, she snapped her fingers.
-... I'd hear you even if you were on top of the glacier. You breathe like an old locomotive.-
Lillian was flabbergasted. She gave a killer look to Brent, who in the meantime was laughing and leaning on the desk:
-I'm digging your style, Sev! You look like a gangsta cowboy. I can call you Sev, can't I? Call me B if my name is too long.-
Could Lillian call them both problem or why me?
She shook her head to Brent desperately trying to make conversation with the mascot:
-I'm a Viking instead. Not a real Viking, those are all dead, but a Viking-era reenactor. How cool your earrings are! I have a little diamond here, and the tragus piercing there.-
-The dragus?-
-With a T. Tragus.-
-Ow, stop it fanboy.-
Lillian glanced sideways at Brent, before eyeing the other one through narrow eyelids:
-In any case it's rude not to look people in the face when they're talking to you.-
Sev didn't even look up:
-I'm reading. It's rude to interrupt.-
Oh bollocks: he was just leafing through the bible and documents, even quickly. One couldn't read like that. Lillian crossed her arms:
-What does the bonfire section say?-
- "Anyone who lights unauthorized fires is punishable by fines of up to ... " -
Lillian knew perfectly well how much was the fine. But she was surprised to hear him repeat the words of the bible as if he had already memorized them.
Brent watched Lillian's wrath build up slowly, like a pressure cooker warming up, and he got comfortable on a chair: were these two going to be his closest colleagues? He would've had a laugh every day.
-Okay, I'm done. Ta-ta.-
When the brat got up and walked to the exit, Lillian could see something of his face for the first time.
She noticed two mini Great Eden looking back curiously at her fresh hennaed hair. Lillian wanted to make it a point not to look in his eyes: they were a focal point that surely everyone was drawn to, she didn't want to give him the satisfaction. She shifted her attention to the sprinkle of freckles on his cheekbones, remembering that she liked that on dark-haired people. His cheeks were red, already burnt by the high mountain sun.
Having finished studying the last document on the pile, the brat placed it in Lillian's hands and took his leave. Brent hummed, spinning in his chair like a child:
-Lil, Lil, please...John put Sev to law enforcement. Honestly, I think he'll make things easier for you.-
Who cared what Brent thought. What a good start!
She had complained about the hipster, while the other one seemed even worse. Moreover, she would have had to spend more time with him than she did with Brent. Really excellent, she could already foresee many quarrels.
She almost hated John. But Lillian was Lillian, she was the best and also his superior: if that little gypsy of her boots had looked for trouble, she would have given it to him.
/
Thoughts of the authors:
Carly doesn't shag rangers. Ah...