Volume 1
Chapter 8
Networking
Part 4
Death... Is not something I was personally experienced with at that point in time, not in the way the average inhabitant of Remnant is. Sure, I had lost the occasional pet, distant family member, or friend of a friend to this phenomenon while I was still a child... But in a world without Grimm, living in the country that is widely accepted as that world's most powerful with next to zero debate, and having been raised in a middle class family with no criminal records, death, at least as it pertains to humans, is rather easy to avoid, barring natural causes. So before that day, I had yet to see a human die in person... Let alone cause it myself. Well, that I could remember, any way; the first time, the one Cinder mentioned the day I met her, still eludes me. But that's not important right now. What is important is that, not only had I just witnessed a human's death for the first time... But I had also consciously and willingly caused it. One could argue that Da Hui and Markos were accidents, a result of miscalculating my own strength as well as the remaining strength of their Auras, and having been caught up in the heat of the moment, but Beiji had been premeditated, even if only for a moment. But... what else was I to do? I told Cinder when I first joined her outfit that I was averse to killing, and would prefer to avoid being put into the position as much as possible... But also that I would not hesitate should the situation require me to do so. And that night, in that place, it was most certainly required. But we've already went over why it was, so instead of me wasting our time repeating those events, let us move on to the aftermath.
I mentioned last time that, in the big picture, the main result of that mission was that Junior, now the sole, uncontested (by anyone significant, anyway) leader of the Axe Gang, would provide us with information, without charging us his normal fees for it. What I failed to mention was just why we did that. And before you raise that brow, no, we weren't simply being greedy. As you've probably already guessed, Cinder is not the forgiving type; not when it counts, anyway. She also isn't the type to make idle threats; Beiji learned this the hard way, costing him the lives of himself, his two bodyguards, and the elder of his two sons. You see, Cinder had purchased information from the Xiongs before, prior to my joining the crew, but what she hadn't counted on was anyone beginning to search for information on herself. Maybe it was Cinder's fault for not considering it, or perhaps it was Beiji's for not giving her a chance to counter-offer, but Beiji had told a certain person just enough to identify Cinder, known to the Xiongs only as the Red Queen, as the missing link behind a slew of seemingly unrelated incidents. Fortunately, Beiji hadn't told this person enough to actually identify Cinder as the Queen... For the mere act of revealing her existence to another unknown party, Cinder's wrath had been evoked.
But even when enraged, Cinder does not act solely out of anger; after I killed Beiji, Cinder interrogated Junior, inquiring into just who had been inquiring into her. But while that was going on, I had already left, needing to be alone with my thoughts. However, I hadn't counted on having company...
'I can't believe I just did that...'
That, of course, referring to his premeditated murder of Beiji Xiong.
"You know, it isn't murder when it's in self-defense."
Caught up as he was in shock, Lee hadn't noticed Emerald follow him out of the The Club and down the mostly empty street, apparently having been content to follow in silence for- Lee took a quick glance at his watch- ten minutes now. Of course, Lee had been fighting a battle with the urge to vomit for most of that (he'd lost that one a few minutes ago). In that time, they had managed to put a full block behind them. Lee sighed.
"Even if it was justifiable, it still counts as manslaughter, Em."
Emerald frowned as she drew level with him, placing an arm around his waist and resting her head against his side. To which Lee momentarily raised his brow... Before realizing that, by putting his own arm around her shoulders (which he promptly did), they would appear to be an average teenage couple walking home from a date at The Club. Nothing for him to read in to, and nothing for passers-by to perform a double take over.
"It was justifiable, Lee. He did try to kill you first."
"Yeah, but I had plenty of time to stop electrocuting him. Instead, I upped the voltage." Lee sighed again. "Look, Em, I appreciate what you're trying to do, I really do, but it's not really me choosing to kill Beiji that's eating at me... That was my first time, you know."
"I think that's supposed to be my line." Emerald quipped, smirking up at a glaring Lee. "But, you're right. The first time is always the hardest..."
Something about the way Emerald's voice lowered when she said that, and the way her eyes suddenly averted... It didn't sit well with Lee.
"Was that your first time too? And don't you dare say what you're about to, I'm being serious here."
Now it was Emerald's turn to sigh, as the humorous approach was preemptively blocked off. "Excuse me for trying to cheer you up a little... But if you really must know, then no, it wasn't... That was actually only my second time seeing a stiff that close... And the first time I'd personally caused it."
Lee... Had trouble believing that one. Emerald may have only been 17 years old, but she had also been with Cinder for a year and a half by this point. Lee refused to believe that in all that time, this was only the first time she'd personally killed someone.
"Merc is usually the metal man."
"Oh. Well, you do like to traipse about like a monkey*."
Now it was Emerald's turn to glare, though the effect was largely mitigated by the fact that she hadn't removed her face from his chest in order to glare, and was lightly shivering. Not that he could blame her; the night had turned chilly once the last rays of sun light had disappeared from the horizon, and she was wearing only a small skirt and blouse, having changed out of her mook disguise before leaving the club. Lee would have offered her his jacket... But... Well, okay, he couldn't find any reason not to, especially since it wasn't even his own, so he forced himself to smile as he peeled the chilled girl off himself so he could doff the jacket.
"Hold your arms out."
And just like that, the glare died, to be replaced with a (reluctantly) grateful smile as Lee, ever the gentleman, helped her in to the jacket.
"Thanks."
"I could hardly allow a lady to freeze." Normally, Lee would have followed that up with some uncharitable comment, perhaps something along the lines of 'even if she barely counts,' but Emerald had actually gone out of her way to be nice to him; Lee had no doubt that Cinder had ordered her to follow him to make sure he wasn't going to do anything too stupid, but that didn't mean she had to actually attempt to comfort him. So it'd be a bit of a dick move if he brought them right back to negging one another... Er, just insulting each other, that is, no sexual connotations implied. While he'd readily admit that Emerald was attractive, it wasn't as if he was trying to seduce her.
"Well, I'm still freezing, so come here."
Lee gulped as he was tugged once more into wrapping an arm around her shoulders, while Emerald all but cuddled into his side. Which was not helping his currently straying thoughts. 'Down boy...'
"So, how did you handle witnessing your first homicide?" Needless to say, the sudden change of subject served to suppress his sudden bout of libido, while also returning to the original topic of conversation.
A wan smile made it's way to Emerald's face as she replied: "Much like you are, actually; shock, disbelief, and just a little bit of guilt were eating away at me. But again, like you, I also knew that it was necessary." She paused then, and Lee waited patiently; Emerald seemed to be debating how best to proceed. "It was Merc's dad."
That... Stopped Lee in his tracks. "I'm sorry," he began in a confused tone of voice. "Could you repeat that? I don't think I heard you correctly. It almost sounded like you said you killed Merc's dad."
Emerald, herself forced to an abrupt stop due to her current appendage to Lee, looked him in the eye with a deadpan expression. "Not quite." Then began to walk again, tugging Lee along by the waist.
Lee stumbled forward at the pulling, but soon righted himself as they began to move again. Still, he had questions.
"Seeing as Merc is your best friend, I'm going to assume that there's a story behind that."
"Well, you're not wrong." Lopsided grin met deadpan gaze.
.
..
...
"This is the part where you actually tell the story. Or at least the basic summary, if you don't want want to talk about it too much."
Emerald chuckled a little. "Sorry, couldn't resist the opportunity."
Lee growled. "Emerald..."
"Alright, alright! It wasn't long after I had joined up with Cinder, maybe... actually, it was probably about as long as it's been since you joined us. Maybe a little longer. But, anyway, she had heard about this assassin, and decided that he would be useful for a future mission. So after doing a little bit of digging, we find out his name: Marcus Black, and that he lives in the mountains with his son."
"Mercury."
"Right. So Cinder and I eventually journeyed out there to meet him... And imagine our surprise that when we come upon the boundaries of his property, we hear shouting coming from inside."
"So... he was abusive?"
"We can only assume; to this day, Mercury refuses to talk about what his life was like before we met him. All I know is that it quickly escalated to an actual fight, and ended with his house up in flames and his dad dead by the side of the road... Though he'd managed to do a number on Merc. I managed to hold it together long enough for Cinder to convince him to come with us... But I ended up losing my dinner about ten minutes after that."
A pause ensued, both in the walk and the conversation, as Lee took a moment to process that. And when he did, he couldn't really say he disagreed. "Yeah, I guess I did the same thing." Of course, that also brought on another realization: "Oh my god. That's why he's so into you, isn't it?" (And, Lee thought with a quick extension of that thought, why Emerald herself was so devoted to Cinder.) Lee's voice, while remaining lowered, was incredulous; it was so simple, yet without knowing the story one would be hard pressed to see just why Mercury continued to pursue someone who just clearly was not interested... She was his Princess Charming, come to rescue him from his "tower!" Lee almost felt like a twat for picking on him for it so much. Emphasis on almost; Mercury actually was a twat, so even though Lee considered him a friend, he would still continue to ridicule him for that.
Emerald let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes, and it's annoying. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do love him, and I will murder you if you ever tell him I said that! But he's more like the annoying little brother I never had, y'know?"
"Yeah," Lee deadpanned, "I know what you mean." Three guesses who he was talking about, and the first two don't count. Except... Neo didn't really annoy him; not usually, and not in the way that Mercury tended to annoy Emerald. Lee would occasionally snap at his pint-sized partner over something inane (such as attempting to steal his ice cream every time he tried to have some), and she would most certainly return the favor (such as when he would call her 'pint-sized' one too many times), but on the whole they really did get along much better than Mercury and Emerald did, who honestly could not have a single conversation without bickering about something. Maybe someday, he could see them having something m-
Lee forced himself to abandon that train of thought. 'Nope nope nope nope nope. This is Neo I'm thinking about, not going there.'
With a groan, Lee shook his head and refocused on Emerald, who... Was... Laughing at him.
"What?"
"You were thinking about Neo, weren't you?"
Shtako. Time to bull-shtak his way out of this one. "Well, I did just mention her. It'd be a little strange if she didn't warrant at least a passing thought, dontcha think?"
"You know what I'm talking about."
Lee realized that this wasn't going to be easy. Time for plan A: Deny everything! "I have no clue what you're referring to."
"You're harboring romantic thoughts about her."
Plan B: Distract her with flattery! "While I already have such a fine specimen attached to my side? I think not!"
A quick jab to the gut from Emerald's free arm was his reward for that statement... As well as her somehow managing to press even closer into his side, bringing attention to her rather sizable (for her age) assets; a blush that was just barely perceptible beneath Emerald's dark skin. Lee found that... Somewhat surprising.
Emerald attempted to deadpan: "You flatter me." Keyword there, being attempted.
Well, at least the plan was working. Time to turn up the charm! "It isn't flattery if it's true: you are a beautiful woman Emerald. Why, just earlier this evening, I took notice of your lovely skin, and could not help but think that it has a lot in common with chocolate: both are smooth, creamy, and fit to eat!" Lee finished that statement with a wink... Then nearly lost his composure as Emerald's blush rose considerably, and she began to sputter on her words.
"Wh-what?! I-I-I... That's!.."
Lee lost it then, and began to cackle.
"Oh my god, your expression right now! Too perfect!"
Emerald... Looked about ready to die of embarrassment. "...Fuck you."
"You wish!" Lee quipped, which caused Emerald to attempt to storm away in a huff... But Lee stopped her by slightly tightening his grip on her shoulders, pulling her back into a genuine sideways hug.
"Sorry, sorry, I saw my opportunity and took it; never would have taken you to be the susceptible type. But, moving on, thank you for that; I needed it."
"I'm so glad my embarrassment amuses you..."
The rest of our walk was spent in companionable silence, once Emerald had calmed down from the sudden embarrassment. And the next day, after we'd sat through a debrief with Cinder, I realized that we were better friends than we had been before, having gone from being more-or-less acquaintances who just happened to share the same group of friends, to actual friends who could seriously confide in one another from time to time. Hehe; I guess one could say that made us murder buddies. Neo was still my best friend, Mercury my bro, and Cinder more-or-less my mentor... But Emerald and I had definitely improved our relationship. And it was that thought that distracted me from wallowing in angst over my actions... And, eventually, allowed me to get over it entirely; I could hardly allow Emerald, Mercury, or even Neo to potentially be injured just because I was squeamish about killing another person, right? I still didn't like it... But I could at least stomach it now, and that more than anything finally convinced Cinder that she was right to follow her gut when she decided to unlock my Aura, saving my life and recruiting me in one. I was both able and willing to kill now, at least as long as I thought it was necessary, and it was that frame of mind that fully integrated me into the paradigm of Cinder's crew; we were all killers after that.
*For anyone who didn't get that reference (and couldn't find it since it isn't on TV Tropes), that was an Artemis Fowl reference. Basically, brawn partnered with brains.
Well... I had originally planned for this chapter to be the actual debrief, with only a brief conversation with Emerald preceding, but, apparently, I can still write while I'm drunk; the back half of this scene was written over the course of three hours while I was under the influence, without a single spelling error, and only some minor edits once I was sober to make it flow better; Drunk!Me seems to know his stuff. Yet somehow I can't do the same when I start drunk texting my friends. Lol. Anyway, this closes the current arc. As for the next... I'm thinking about expanding the preface into an actual prologue, probably including the scene where Cinder finds Lee, ending with her unlocking his aura. But I'm not quite sure I want to slow the forward momentum I've been holding on to in order to go back to it... Oh well. I guess I'll see which ideas flow faster.
On a different note... Holy shtako! We all knew that Cinder had something planned for the tournament, but damn, I did not expect Merc's semblance to be THAT. I kinda wish I had known before, actually, because the action in this arc could have gone quite a bit differently... But, oh well. Now I know. To be terrified! That is one helluva way to instill doubt in a person's allies! I'm already shivering just imagining all the ways he could combo with Emerald... *shudder*.
Back to THIS version of the story: Poor Merc is miles below crush depth into the friend zone but has a little bit of a backstory now, courtesy of Emerald, who shows her caring side, and Neo seems to have some competition!
Neo: ..?
Lee: She says she has no idea what you're talking about. For that matter, I don't either?
CS: I know for a fact that you d- wait a second. WHO SAID YOU COULD BREAK THE FOURTH WALL? GET BACK IN THERE!
Lee: You did when you started writing this story, you piece of shtako! Or do all those first person beginning and ending sections not count!?
CS: Why I oughta... Excuse me folks, I seem to be having some difficulties with my characters; hopefully, I'll be able to get them back in line in time for the next chapter. Until next time!
Oh, I almost forgot! Current poll results for the mission roster for the Vytal Festival:
Professor Fall + CMSN: 11
CMSN (led by Cinder) + CMMN (pronounced Cinnamon, led by Caerulean): 4
FLME (led by Cinder) + CRLN (led by Caerulean): 2
