Chapter Five: The Consequences….
Oog….this is taking too long. Sorry for the wait, but I have story ideas invading my mind. I can't write them all down or I'll lose this one before it's finished…gah. Shinra, I'm glad to see that you enjoy my story so much ^_^ I really didn't think anybody would. Reviews make my day, and I'm very happy that some people took the time out of theirs to comment on my admittedly rather typical and un-innovative story. Thank you all, and let's get on with the show's grand finale!
Disclaimer: zeeble zeeble zeeble.
Zita stopped in the middle of her walk when she saw the door of Dib's house cast aside in the lawn. It was plain to see that something had happened here, something very bad. Dropping her bundles of food, she raced into the house. All the rooms were empty….running up the stairs, she saw another door knocked off its hinges. It appeared to have been holding a bedroom, as messed up and generally trashed as the entrance had been. Bloodstains covered the floor, confirming her worst fears.
"Oh, SHIT," Zita whispered under her breath, adding a swear word that I can't write if I want to maintain the rating. She flipped back the cuff of her trenchcoat, revealing a small flat monitor that went around her wrist. After a few buttons were pressed in a seemingly random order, the screen went into static for several seconds which then fizzed away to show Zim's face.
"What is it? I don't have time for anything less than a full scale multiple-charge trial and evacuation, Zita, so make whatever you've got to tell me quick."
Zita's face went grim. "And if it IS a full scale multiple-charge trial and evacuation?"
"….if you don't tell me exactly what happened then I'll put you on stakeout duty for the next year."
"Dib's been taken. By the looks of it, a whole gang showed up…one of the better ones, too. There's blood all over the floor of his bedroom, two doors have been smashed in, and I noticed a good streak of laser fire charring one of the walls. From what I can tell, this happened maybe two days ago. Get Tak to check that database of hers—I'm sending a fingerprint I caught on the floor through the com."
"I'll be right on it. Stay where you are." The com screen flickered, then went black. Zita flipped the cuff back over it, then knelt down to examine the bloodstains.
"Oh, Dib…..it's all my fault….I should have checked the warranty on that stupid weapon. Some of the early models just can't handle more than twenty rounds of charge before they go completely kaput…."
She sighed, straightening up. All she could do now was wait for Tak to call her back on the com with what little data they could scrounge off the database.
"Speak of the Devil," Zita murmured as her wrist started beeping. On the com screen, Tak's face appeared, looking extremely concerned.
"I got some information on the fingerprint, Zita. It belongs to a member of the Snakes, one of the most heavily muscled gangs out there. He escaped after killing a Ranger…adding to charges of theft, murder, arson, rape….the usual. Last time we sent in a Ranger, they were based at the old skool building. Do not, I repeat, do NOT go there. The Snakes are number three on our list of 'unbeatables'. Without backup, you're doomed. No heroism! We absolutely FORBID heroism! Drama never gets you anywhere…"
Zita's face hardened, and she started moving towards the door—er, big empty hole. "With all due respect, Tak, heroism saves lives. We don't have time for backup. It's been at least two days. There's a pretty good chance I'm too late anyway. You know what happens when people get kidnapped by the gangs, Tak…." She turned off the com.
Back at the base, Tak sighed. Drama. If the Rangers had a weakness, it was drama.
Dib moaned, weakly fluttering his eyes open. Where…oh. Here. Not a very good place to be, seeing as 'here' meant 'tied to a chair that's nailed down to the floor in the middle of a very dark room with one light shining down right on your eyes and a man that's SMILING at you. SMILING. Certain death awaits you when strange people smile like that'.
"Good. We were wondering when you'd wake up. Shall we proceed with the interrogation, or go straight ahead to the revenge? Perhaps you'd like to start at the end, beginning with the horrifying discovery and working backwards."
He blinked, partly because of the light, but partly because of the dialogue. "Um. Er….let's start with the horrifying discovery, then interrogation, then revenge. I guess…"
"An excellent choice. Very well, then. Welcome to the Snakes. Your infernal sister is one of the banes of our thugs, and since she's completely impossible to capture, we've decided to settle for you instead. Before we let those who have been slighted by your sister, heh, have their way with you…we'd like to force you to tell us everything you know about the Rangers, since you've obviously been in contact with them. And before that, it has been decided that we'll crush your little spirit completely and utterly by showing you what really happened to your father."
Dib tried to make sense of his muddled thoughts, translating what the man had said. "My father?…he's dead. He—no, he isn't, is he. You wouldn't smile like that unless you know something I don't."
The man laughed. "Perceptive little boy! Yes. Your father is very much alive. And…here he is!"
From behind the shadows stepped none other than Professor Membrane, looking worn and weary. He did a double take when he saw Dib—had he not been expecting to see his son there?
"I'll let you two get reacquainted before the interrogation. I'm sure he has many things to tell you…."
As the man stepped away, Professor Membrane drew closer, kneeling down to look at his son.
"Dad….I won't ask you how, I'm asking you why. All those months I thought you had died. How come you never told me that you were still alive? Why didn't you ever come back?"
Professor Membrane sighed, ruffling his son's hair. "I wanted to see you and Gaz again so badly…if I'd ever had the chance, I would have come home like a shot. But I couldn't. When I was helping out what remained of our government, inventing things that would have helped us regain some semblance of a law, there was….an attack. The Snakes won—they had more weapons than we did, they had more people than we did, they had everything going for them and we didn't. My group was captured, everybody else was executed.
"We were given a chance to join the Snakes. They offered us a comfortable home, access rights to their supplies, all the member benefits….and, of course, our lives. Everybody in my group firmly refused, and were publicly shot. But I didn't. I wanted to live. I joined…."
Dib pulled his head back from his father, anger and betrayal filling his face. "You joined them. You joined a gang. You help them kill innocents, you actually…"
"Dib, you don't understand, they would have killed me— "
"And you should have let them! Now you're no better than they are, father." Dib spat out the last word as if it was something unpleasant.
Professor Membrane pulled back, visibly affected by the pure hate in his son's eyes. "I….it's just….they…"
"Go away," said Dib harshly. "I don't want to have to look at you any longer."
The man stepped out of the shadows, clapping. "Bravo, Membrane. You succeeded in making your only son wish you were dead. Now, don't you have some inventions to work on?" Quietly and dispiritedly, Dib's father moved towards the shadows of the room. Momentarily, the sound of a door being opened and shut was heard.
"You know, you're quite a feisty little boy. Some of the men are going to have fun with you. But your father is right, you know. It's in your best interest to join up. You can tell us all you know willingly. We'll still let those who want revenge exact it upon you, but we won't let them kill you. And after that, we'd let you have all the benefits of a member of our little group. Just answer the questions peacefully. That's all you have to do."
The fire in Dib's eyes grew tenfold. "Go to hell."
The man shrugged. "As you wish. Veitch, it's your turn."
Another man stepped out from the shadows, carrying a syringe in one hand and what looked like a long metal stick in the other. He smiled in a way that made shivers go down Dib's spine—to heck with stoic bravery, this was scary.
He walked up to the chair, scanning Dib with his eyes. "Hmmm….yes. I'd imagine you're about, say, five foot three? 90 pounds, or thereabouts? That sounds fairly accurate. So….there." His fingers clicked against the metal, causing it to extend several inches. A small blade shot out of the tip.
"Right, then." Veitch stabbed the syringe into Dib's arm, causing him to wince. "Ten, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one….it should be working now….so, Dib. What do you know about the Rangers? Any locations or weaknesses would be particularly helpful."
Dib's eyes flickered, and he slumped forward in the chair. His mind was clouded by a gray haze. Dimly, he could hear Veitch's words. Sure…I'll tell…no reason not to… A nagging little voice spoke up in the back of his thoughts. Oh no you don't. There's plenty of reasons not to. WAKE UP!
His head jerked up again, and he snarled. "Nice try." Veitch looked faintly surprised, and glanced down at the quarter-empty syringe. "Perhaps I misjudged your weight." Injecting the remaining serum, he counted to ten once more, then repeated the question.
The little voice inside Dib's mind was joined by another. Give it up! Tell him everything! Offer to help him with anything he needs! But the first one didn't seem to like that very much, as evidenced by the sharp tones in its next words. Don't listen to that little traitor. Now, all you have to do is keep quiet and think about something. Anything will do, but don't talk at all or you'll reveal more than you want to.
Dib kept silent. The second voice had been the one laughing at him just before he was captured…it was probably a good thing not to listen to it. The fact that he was hearing a pair of voices in his head didn't bother him. After all, he'd been in two or three minds about something before—usually in deciding what to do about the way events played out in his life. The giant hamster accident, for example. Or when he'd first met Tak.
"What a shame. Now I've got to interrogate you properly, instead of using a pathetic useless 'truth serum'." Veitch raised the bladed end of the stick-thing, pulling out the syringe with his other hand. In a sudden movement, he shoved it into Dib's arm and twisted it carefully, clicking his fingers against the metal again.
Dib screamed, long and loud. The pain….he'd been stabbed before, but it hadn't felt anything like this. Both of the voices in his head screamed along with him—one in fear, the other in displeasure that things weren't going in accordance to the plan.
Zita halted, fifteen feet away from the old skool building. She looked it over, a flood of past memories coming back. Memories of a happier time, when life was so much simpler…
She shook her head, and opened up the com link again. "Tak. It's me. How's the backup coming?"
"Just fine. They should be at your present location in ten minutes or so. I suppose it's useless telling you that you're going to die if you go in there, and ask you to wait just a little longer?"
"Yep. Completely useless. Tell my family that I loved them. Bye, Tak."
Zita clicked off the com, pulling out her twin pistols. She straightened her hat, gazed up at the bleak sky one last time, and readied her weapons.
"Let's do some good," were her last words, as she kicked down the entrance doors.
At first, she had the element of surprise. For a few precious seconds, the gangmembers in the first room were off their guard. A few seconds was all she needed. Ten men fell down with nasty gaping holes in their heads, and three more hit the ground with blood pumping out of their jugular veins. Reload. Aim. Fire.
Six shots. Six more men. And another seven went down. Reload. Aim. Fire.
By now, goons were pouring in through all the doors, hefting their weapons and aiming guns. Those with projectiles went down first—thirteen of them. Reload. Aim. Fire.
In total, seventy-nine Snakes died at her first assault. Zita's ranger training had taken over completely. Luck and skill were on her side as she raced into the next room, pistols blazing. Thirteen more, and thirteen more. One hundred five men down, in the space of just a few minutes.
The next room was larger, hundreds filled the space, all armed with projectiles. Zita ducked and rolled to avoid the hail of gunfire, blasting six shots into a wall and kicking it through for an escape route.
She blinked at the sudden darkness. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the lack of light, however, and she was able to narrowly dodge a sudden stab at her in time. Glancing over to the center of the room, Zita saw a familiar figure tied to a chair.
More dodging. Good thing I spent all that time in the training room, she thought. Springing up behind the chair, Zita shot a hole through the ropes. "Get up and run, NOW! MOVE IT!"
A shot hit her straight in the head, and she knew no more.
Dib stared at Zita's body, but broke out of his shock before he could get captured again. Weaving underneath the grabbing hands, he raced down the path Zita had taken, following the line of bodies. Freedom awaited him, just outside that gaping hole in the building…..
The Snakes chased him, naturally, but none was quite as fast was Dib. Whether due to luck or to fate, he couldn't tell, but he crashed right into no less than a dozen fully armed Rangers.
All was still for a moment, then gunfire and laser blasts filled the air. Two Rangers fell. That was little compared to the enemy's casualties, however. A few stragglers stood transfixed at the gory sight, then were mowed down by a hail of bullets.
One of the Rangers helped Dib to his feet. "Come on. We're just lucky that the Snakes haven't deployed their full forces yet, so get a move on before they do!"
It wasn't until they'd reached the elevator and were safely inside that Dib collapsed from the sheer pain of the interrogation implement still stuck in his arm.
One day later….
Dib woke up in a hospital bed, people nervously buzzing around him. "You're awake! The Wardens want to talk with you right away." He jumped out of the bed immediately, remembering what had happened.
In the now-familiar 'council' room sat everyone he'd seen there before—except Zita. A pang rose up in his heart, and he swallowed at the memory of her death. No dramatic sacrifice scene had awaited her. Just a lucky shot.
"Dib, I'm sure you know why you're here right now. The Snakes are still at large, there isn't anything we can do about that for a while. Zita's SER unit managed to bring her body back to us, at least."
There was an uncomfortable silence for several minutes, then Tak spoke up. "We'd like to ask you to join us again, Dib. Your sister is waiting for you in the training room, since you seem to have recovered from the blade's chemical injection."
Another long silence, and then:
"Yes. I'll join." There was absolutely no emotion in Dib's voice.
EPILOGUE
Dib stared up at the ceiling of the training dormitory. His sister slumbered quietly in the bed next to him. It had been a few weeks since he'd officially become a Ranger-in-training, and he still felt the quiet emptiness inside him. The voices were gone now, or at least they'd stopped talking.
He turned over on his side to look at his sister, sleeping peacefully. She hadn't really needed the training. Yet for some reason, Gaz worked and trained along with him. Perhaps it was out of love, or perhaps out of loyalty. Neither seemed to be particularly in-character of her.
Dib's thoughts turned to the other side of his family. Professor Membrane was still out there. All he needed was one chance, one final showdown, one last meeting with his 'father'…to avenge Zita…
As he drifted off to sleep, Dib remembered the words of Sergeant Bitters. "But do you know what makes us strong? The fact that WE DO IT ANYWAY!" That was what Zita had dedicated herself to. Helping out, ignoring the odds….
What makes us strong….
THE END
Whoo! It's finally over. Thank you all for reading my story! If there's anybody out there that's insane enough to want to thank ME(and you would have to be insane, considering the quality of the story) then a picture of Zita just before she entered the skool building with her pistols ready would make me break out in a spasm of joy.
If you enjoyed What Makes Us Strong, keep an eye out for my next story, which will be something completely different and mostly made up of fancharacters.
