Veracity
-(-
My hands shake silently as I grip the black cushioned steering wheel, headed towards the brothel where Faye told me she is living. My alert teal eyes try to avoid looking at the woman in my passenger seat, She is facing foreword, her Black Falcon emblem boldly blazed on her lapel. Her black cropped hair and her sepia eyes never move, but she is wringing her fragile hands. She is losing control.
My radar bleeps as another zipcraft pulls up and flanks me, my long arm is already reaching for the missile joystick. I pause as I realize that the side of the gray zipcraft is smeared with the Black Falcon emblem as well, the falcon's wings unfurled and the looming talons frozen in a suspended strike.
"Hey, you show us where Vicious is and there better be no funny business, our leader demands that we find him tonight…er morning, whatever it is on in this city." They have to be a few years older than I am, but they already broke a rule in syndicates, never tell them why. The fact that the leader ordered this, tells me it is personal, but who the person is…is a mystery.
"Number one, I never said I knew where Vicious is, I know where he might be. Number two, only amateurs tell why they want someone. I am not a little kid who might know some information, so why don't you just let me handle it?" I sigh at the muscular thugs on the other end, being in a Syndicate is a lot more than being able to beat the living daylights out of someone.
"You better hope we find Vicious, or our lea—there will be consequences." One pulls out a black cord with a fuzzy-type end; electroshock…this world has found too many ways to torture. I turn off the signal, we are almost there anyway. The city at night looks like Tharsis, my cold home town.
I feel a knot of nervous tension in my gut; I hope this goes well…there are so many things that can go wrong.
I find a parking deck on the other side of the street from her apartment building, her lights are on, I can tell from her window in the kitchen. That means Vicious is there, I inwardly sigh at the good news. As I effortlessly land my black zipcraft, still scorched from the previous battle I was in, Alisa hands me a tranquilizer gun.
"Use this, we want him as unharmed as possible…and be careful." She warns
"Now you decide to be friendly, it's too late to be concerned for my health now…" I grab the gun and gauge its weight, unlike the syndicate type I used to use, the syndicate used all the same type of handgun, .45. I ironically have the same .45 on me now too.
One thing that has always bothered me is that the type of bullet that was found in Shin, wasn't .45. It was a 9mm, very unlike the messy type the Red Dragons used. Vicious could have just picked up a gun or something; I mean of course Vicious killed him. How else could it have happened?
Before I knew it, I was at the bruised door of the Indigo Moon, I see two girls in the lobby, one has large brown eyes, and one has slanted dark eyes, they are both grumbling over something in their prostitute get-ups. I open the door and begin up the stairs, Alisa and the two thugs follow me.
"Hey you, no guys allowed in the building unaccompanied! Are you listening to me jackass? We have already had problems with killers in here! Get the hell out!" I guess I kinda pissed her off when I ignored her and went up to the second story. I hear one of the thugs laugh to the other, Alisa remains silent.
"Yuki get Carlos, he'll fix those suckers up real good!" I hear one of the girls run and beat on a door, I waste no time in getting up to Faye's apartment. I pull out my .45 and shoot the lock. I hear a scream from the lobby as I burst in the door.
"Faye, are you here?" I hear a sigh as Faye appears from her room, her shoulder bandaged heavily and she looks relieved with gun in hand.
"Good, it's only you Shin, at first I thought that it was…Who are those people?" Alisa and the thugs file in, and they look at her skeptically, I notice Princess is laying down in a corner of the room.
"Faye Valentine, We need to know the whereabouts of Vicious." Alisa slices the tension with a syndicate precision. Her black falcon emblem is shining in the fluorescent light.
"Shin please don't tell me you're working with the Black Falcons…" She lightly draws her gun and points it at Alisa. My eyes widen…I never thought it would be this hard to tell her. I don't want her to be angry at me, that is one of the last things I want.
"Faye, this is for your own good, we need to hand Vicious over to the Black Falcons; I can tell he has been here." I speak softly, as her eyes narrow venomously. Just as she was about to speak, gunshots ring outside in the alleyway and Alisa and the two thugs run down the steps to find the source.
"Ay! You crazy bastards whaz goin on 'ere?" I hear a man's slurred voice with an accent I don't recognize.
"Carlos it's the Syndicate! Get Yuki and Sonya and make sure they don't do something stupid!" Faye commands, her emerald eyes leaping with fire as she glares at me. I hear Carlos curse and run back down the stairs.
"Why are you turning Vicious in? They will torture him, you know it! I am not going to let that happen!" She clicks the safety on her gun, seeing her poised like this at me makes me sick. I don't want her to be angry with me, I only want her to be happy. How can she be happy with Vicious? Vicious is a killer.
"Faye, I can't let you be with Vicious, he killed my brother, he shot Lin, I can't allow him to be with you. Wait how did you get that bullet wound on your shoulder?" I ask randomly, concerned, my slanted eyes softening as I step towards her, she takes a step back.
"Vincent from the Red Dragons did this, not Vicious, he doesn't use guns. And even if Vicious killed people, I can't forgive you for helping Julia. I'd go and shoot your 'friends' right now, but I will need these bullets later!" Her eyes narrow; and my face pales as white as snow, Julia….is alive? Julia is the leader of the Black Falcons…she wants revenge against Vicious.
The puzzle pieces are coming together, and I feel a nauseating guilt take over my entire body like a damp blanket. I never thought in a million years that I would be caught helping her, Lin always thought there was something amiss with her, and now I know, she faked her own death…she drove Spike over the edge.
"Faye, please believe me, I had no idea Julia was alive…" I drop my gun with live ammo and my hand quakes out of control…did I make a mistake? Was I the one who didn't know what he was getting into? Another shout and gunshot ring and I hear the angels sing…the angels of rain begin to pour.
(POV change)
"Vicious you are getting rusty, Daemon told me you killed Blade, but now I'm skeptical." Vincent sneers fluently as I wince from a bad bullet graze on my upper arm, this almost seems stupid, Vincent is a professional gun wielder and no matter how much katana or kendo training one receives, guns have an advantage.
" I didn't get bit by a dog named Princess." I smirk as Vincent's eyes get dark and he fires another round at me, I dodge it successfully and thrash out my katana while he darts around and dodges also. His matted dark hair blends into the background as I jump and slash my katana down in a vertical swing, narrowly missing him as he narrowly misses shooting me.
"Vicious, your time has come, its time to just give up, this dream world has no use for syndicate has-beens. Why don't you just wake up?" His low voice ripples like velvet through the air, but I am not amused nor moved. I am tired of people talking about how life is a fucking dream. I wanted to believe it a long time ago, when Spike and I were in the Cathedral, but deep down I couldn't.
I slice at his wounded side, from Princess' bite, I feel flesh connect and tear, he doesn't flinch though. He just jumps back and shoots again, I see the bullet come at me like a predictable train as I move my head to the side and it passes by.
"Life is what you make it Vincent. It's your fault your life is what it is, take some responsibility for your actions and move on." I smirk, my razor blade eyes constrict and lacerate his coal eyes, "I hate beasts who wallow in self pity." He grins quirkily, his way of being pissed off, and fires a few more rounds. I deflect one, dodge one barely, but the other connects in my right side.
"I didn't ask to be on titan. I was forced, I was a guinea pig. I didn't ask to be captured by your scout team, by you Gren and Daemon. None of that was my fault." I use my legs to thrust myself upwards as I grip the sword with two hands.
I swing at an angle across his chest making a bloody laceration while the blood still spurts. He backs up a few feet, about five to be exact and I try to strike again. He parries with his gun, both our weapons locking and shaking furiously with disgust. I slash away his .45 and it clatters yards away. My eyes cut into his empty ones, I realize that he is right about one thing, Daemon was with Gren and I on titan for a short period.
"You are an idiot, no matter if you were forced on Titan or you signed up you were sent there to learn something." I spit reticently back, stupid bastard...He didn't learn anything, neither did Daemon. Daemon was the stupid bastard who mercilessly and maniacally shot down everyone who got in his path. He didn't learn anything, except learning the best ways of creating mass murder.
Apparently Vincent also learned nothing from that experience either. The problem with people who think their lives are dreams is that they hold no responsibility for their actions. They just blame their faults and failures on others, or believe that fate is the force that dragged them to where they are. Putting all your responsibilities on others is lacking honor; such as killing, I kill with my katana so I carry that weight. Shooting someone with a gun is easier to kill and to place the blame on others. Fate is just as worse, the only thing that fate does is honor your victories and deny your defeats.
"That is so easy for you to say isn't it Vicious?! You think you are some sort of God who is better than everyone else, you killed on Titan and now you are nothing. I will show you the world of butterflies is the true reality not your pathetic sadistic world of Syndicates and wars!" How dare he call me nothing when you look at him and see an empty shadow. I hate hypocrites.
I frown and my stance shifts to offensive as I leap and charge at him with my sword at my side. Apathetic rage burns within me as I whisk my katana in an upwards slice, but missing. My arms are lifted for a second of vulnerability, and unfortunately that's all it took.
I feel a foreign pain in my chest and my eyes widen drastically, Vincent's fingers are digging into my flesh, my breathing is quickly becoming irregular. My grip on the katana loosens as my blood seeps from my body into rivulets down his wrist. His grin is insanely calm, as if killing me is all but natural. My mouth opens partly as I refuse to let him see me weak. I use my remaining leg strength to roundhouse him in the gut, he falls back surprised. I leap backwards, looking behind me now noticing the small fan-club that I accumulated.
Shin, a syndicate woman and her two bodyguards, and Faye, standing with a worried look sketching her features, Shin looks like he vomited his lower intestine.
"Just...answer me one thing Vincent...why are the...Red Dragons after...me? Is it something personal...revenge, bloodlust?" that question has been festering in my throat since the beginning and I needed to stall him to formulate a plan, something.
"The Black Falcon Syndicate wants to capture you, we have to stop them so you don't serve them. The other reason is...Daemon wanted to tell me to tell you the truth behind Gren before you died." Vincent sounded a little disappointed it wasn't personal....so It was just political interest...interesting. "The plan was mine, but he executed it flawlessly...calling him a spy, blaming it on you, pinning the Titan duo against each other, it worked perfectly. Gren fell for the bait and you ended up alone and dark, the exact outcome he wanted. You played right into his hands.
"Vincent...I've had....enough of...your...pathetic games...You have no honor...you have no integrity....its time you....burned in hell..with the other beasts."As blood flows freely from my chest and my bullet wound, I prepare for the final assault. My silver hair is matted to my forehead with sweat and my katana sings with weariness.
"Sorry Vicious, but I have one more ace up my sleeve. He takes out a small uzi from his back, and I feel so stupid for not checking that he had an extra weapon than his .45. He takes the weapon and sprays, I roll and duck, but he wasn't aiming for me...the people behind me. I anxiously turn behind me seeing Shin, and the two thugs laying in their own pools of blood, Faye was pushed out of the way by Shin.
"You bastard! You'll pay for that!" Faye shrieks as she leaps off the asphault and takes her gun and shoots all of her rounds. He dodges most, one grazes his shoulder. I make a move to end this, but before I can reach within six feet of slashing distance, he points his uzi and shoots at point blank.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. I counted each bullet that entred me, some in my legs some in my arms, most in my chest. I feel my legs burn and crumple like flaming wings as I hit the asphalt with a painful thud. My katana clatters noisily beside me, I can't move, my whole body hurts and all I can think of is strangling that man to death, but my body wont listen to me.
"Vicious! Oh my God...No! You can't be...." I hear a tinkle of stiletto heels on asphalt and a few footsteps coming towards them, I manage to roll on my side, and the sight makes me sick...Faye is going to try to fight Vincent. I know Faye is strong, she is not weak, but there is no way she can go up against him.
"Ill make sure you'll never see the sun rise Vincent!"Faye kicks with her long smooth legs and jumps and swings in a right hook, but he looks unfazed. She furrows her brow and jumps and connects a jump swing kick, but he seems unfazed...this guy can't be killed.
"I want to see what Vicious sees in you." He punches her in the stomach that ignites a fire in my chest. Seeing her double over makes my grit my teeth. I watch as I try to gather strength as he tilts up her chin...he wont...I wont let him...
"You jack ass Ill kil– " Her sentence was chopped off as he struck down upon her lips with his, her eyes went wide with shock, as he pressed into her shoulder wound, reopening it, her eyes constricted to venom-green slits.
I felt my body become lighter with the fire that consumes me. No one kisses her...no one touches her without her permission or mine, especially this freak. He will pay, His judgment day is here and I will deliver him to the underworld. I struggle painfully to lift my body on one knee...one knee is all I need as I use my bloody right arm to grasp my katana.
"You taste like strawberries."She strains against his hold on her as he lifts his uzi to her head, I only have one shot at this, if I miss or if he dodges, it will be over. I raise my katana above my head, preparing to hurl it at him as a bullet whizzes and hits Vincent in the hand; making him drop his uzi. He flings Faye to the ground and she rolls unconscious when her head hit the asphalt.
"Vincent You got some nerve you know." The cop steps from the shadows holding his smoking gun. Vincent is between the cop and I and as he turns to look at the cop, I seize my chance. Using my last ounce of blood and strength I fling the spinning katana at him like a circular saw. The katana goes through the back of his scull and he falls to the sound soundlessly.
"Sayonara...."I am usually not one for last dramatic words, but here I am saying it. Only heroes say those last words. My mind reels, something that it is not accustomed to, and realizes something, did I just do something heroic? I hope not, I hated comic book heroes. Then I realize that I would do almost anything for that violet haired woman...and isn't that what those stupid heroes do?
My eyes widen slightly as a sharp pain hits my back. The night's wings begin to uplift to dawn, I loose all feeling and I fall into darkness.
-They're all too far-
-(-
Sooooo.....how was the fight scene? I personally thought I could have done a bit better, but I was happy with it. Shin's POV was a little uneventful, but don't worry, he'll be better in the next chappie!
Anyway.....I don't have much else to say except......Responds to Reviews are next chapter...
sorry for the short AN, I am feeling uninspired for this note because I am actually not quite sure where this fic will go from here... XD