Blood
Chapter 11: Bearing a Double Cross
By Fool's Gold
Disclaimer: Garou Densetsu (Fatal Fury), Ryuuko no Ken (Art of Fighting) and all related characters are the property of SNK-Playmore. No profit has been made from this fic.
Thomas and Harold stared at the television screen, open-mouthed, as their leader initiated the final stage of his scheme all too soon. "Wha–?" A split second later, the explosion ripped through the power plant, reducing everything in the vicinity to ashes – including the two hapless henchmen.
The same terrible scene was repeated at countless sites across the island, the blasts claiming the lives of both the innocent and the guilty. The foreknowledge that the members of Kain's organisation possessed proved to be ultimately useless; their last thoughts cursed their leader's duplicity as they were swallowed up by a disaster of their own making.
There was a brief flash of almost unbearable light, and Second Southtown was plunged into complete darkness.
Rock saw the flash of light from behind him as he pulled the door shut, and turned to face it. In an instant, instinct overruled conscious thought, and the desire for survival proved stronger than despair: his fingers curled almost involuntarily, blue lines flowing across his skin as he slammed his hands onto the ground. The power he wielded leapt from him at the instant of contact, loosened from their bounds by the technique he had invoked. Azure waves sprang up from his splayed palms, rising up in luminous streams to form a pillar around his hunched frame just as the two fronts of energy connected.
There was an ear-splitting clap as the impact nearly forced Rock to the ground. His hastily-erected shield bore the brunt of the damage, but even so, the residual force of the blow was staggering. He gritted his teeth in pain as the pressure intensified, willing all his strength into maintaining the barrier's integrity, but the assault continued unabated. He could see nothing but brightness now, forcing its way closer and closer in spite of all his efforts; his defensive position was becoming even harder to maintain, and he could almost feel the searing lick of flame that would consume them all. The roar of the blast rang in his ears so loudly that he shook. Desperately, he forced even more of his power into the streams that built up around him.
Gradually, he became aware of a terrible pain in his fingers that could not have resulted from the external assault: the raw power that he channelled was taking its toll on his body, an inevitable outcome of the mixed blood that ran through his veins. The ferocity of the Raging Storm was great enough, but when coupled with the dark power of the Heinlein lineage, it was enough to stop even the titanic blast that he faced... and enough to break his body down under the strain. Rock was no longer even sure whether the bloodlines – the same ones he had so vehemently rejected – would save or destroy him. Nonetheless, he kept the shield up, even though it was costing him greatly: he knew that the possibility of death was still better odds than its certainty. But he didn't know how long he would last under such an intense siege...
Mercifully, he felt the pressure slowly began to die away, and Rock cautiously diminished the intensity of his defence in time with the last vestiges of the wave. The glare and din that had previously swamped him now subsided, allowing him to witness what he had done.
All along the road, the buildings that had once stood proudly were now scorched and scarred, their surfaces pitted heavily by the debris that had been thrown up during Rock's desperate defence. Twisted frames bordered shattered windows, but no sound came through them except for the cries of the wounded. The road itself was cracked and pitted from the explosion, and there was barely a square foot of pavement left intact.
And that was merely the scene that greeted Rock when he looked behind him. Before him, in stark contrast, the landscape was a scene of grotesque tranquillity. The epicentre of the blast caught his eye from all the way down the street: where the Second Southtown General Hospital had once stood, there was now nothing but a shallow, smouldering crater. Around it, a neat circle marked out the magnitude of the explosion clearly: the buildings closest to it had been practically vaporised, while only rubble remained of the next nearest ones. To Rock's left and right, he could see nothing but ruined shells – the house he stood in front of was the only one that remained mostly intact, a ridge of fractured asphalt marking the point where the Raging Storm had ended and safety began.
And no sound came from within.
Hotaru
With bated breath, he flung the door open, fearing for her life. But she was not in the hallway, where he'd last seen her; she had moved further in. Three long strides covered the distance of the hallway as he crossed over into the living room.
There, Hotaru knelt over the body of Katherine Yardsley.
From where he stood, he could see a bloodstained piece of glass on the floor lying next to Hotaru's knees. Her hands worked over the elderly woman's neck as she tried to stanch the bleeding, but to no avail – the shard from the broken window had sliced her throat open cleanly. He thought he saw the dead woman's eyes fix him with an accusing, glassy stare, and all he could do was look back helplessly.
All this while, Hotaru hadn't made a sound. Rock could only hear the sounds of her bloody hands moving, searching vainly for a pulse... and then they moved one last time as she reached for Mrs. Yardsley's head, gently closing the woman's eyes.
And she turned to him and asked, her eyes shining with grief, "You knew this would happen, didn't you?"
That was it. Just one question, framed in tears and blood, and set in the sorrowful face of a girl who no longer trusted him. And he had no answer.
But you do, Rock Howard. You knew all along, and you never did anything about it.
The agony that his hands had endured returned with a vengeance, but it extended all over his body now, a stabbing, excruciating pain that seemed strangely familiar to him... and suddenly, he remembered. It was the same pain that had overwhelmed him that night when he'd launched his mad assault on Kain's mansion.
"Not here," he murmured feverishly. "Not here, not now..."
And he tore out of the building in insane haste, not noticing the brown slip that fell from his jacket, landing next to its twin. They were the only sign that he had ever been there.
Hotaru watched him leave passively. She walked slowly to the hallway, dazed by shock and grief, and opened the envelopes with crimson fingers.
The snow was already settling over the remains of the Southtown Expo, piling layer upon layer of white on the ravaged land. But an incongruous streak of purple stood out in the middle of it.
Kain weakened the aura that surrounded him, reducing it to a faint purple sheen that surrounded his body, and looked upon what he had wrought. And he was pleased.
Thus ends the legacy of Geese Howard. I have undone what he has made, and all his works are nothing but dust. Are you watching from heaven, Marie? And do you see all this from Hell, Geese?
Take a look at Second Southtown now, and see what it has become.
There was a faint coughing sound from underneath the snow, to which Kain cocked an eyebrow in surprise. He hadn't expected anyone to survive the blast, and certainly not at ground zero. But if anyone had lived through it, he certainly would have...
True to expectations, Goto dragged himself out from under his cover of snow to face his boss, looking slightly dishevelled but completely unscathed. The assassin, to Kain's surprise, displayed a look of carefully-controlled neutrality, but Kain was not fooled: the expression on Goto's face was clearly artificial, and Kain knew better than to assume that the man was anything but raging underneath that calm veneer.
"I thought you said that good help was hard to come by," he accused. "What's the big idea, trying to kill off everyone in your employ?"
Kain smiled cruelly. "Come on, Mr. Futaba. This is what you were looking for, isn't it – a world where only the strong survive? You have it." He swept his arm in a wide arc. "It's quite simple, really. I have merely forced the people of Second Southtown to work out their own survival. The strong will live, while the weak will fall by the wayside. If my men died, it was purely their own fault."
It was harsh logic, Goto knew, but that was how things worked in life. "I see, I see." He brushed off the snow from his clothes. "I suppose I should be thanking you for this," he grumbled, seemingly unaffected by his close brush with death, "but somehow, I can't get over the fact that you just tried to kill me."
Kain readied himself for an attack, catching the menacing undertones in his subordinate's words. "So you're planning to return the favour, Goto?" His aura flickered slightly, ready to flare up at a moment's notice.
To his surprise, Goto waved off the idea. "I wish I could, but I have a prior engagement – and I presume you have one too. Sorry."
Kain knew what he meant – both of them still had their own family affairs to sort out. He could already feel the resonance of blood drawing him towards the one other who shared it... and he knew that there was one last article of unfinished business left to clear. "Well... that's a pity. I guess this is farewell."
It sounded almost like the parting of old friends, Goto realised, but that didn't hide the fact that they were almost at each other's throats. "And I suppose I won't see you again," he replied fatalistically.
"Perhaps, perhaps not. It all depends on who the strong are."
"Well said, Kain, well said. Goodbye, then."
They turned away from each other, and neither one looked back.
Duck King peeked out from behind the counter, surveying the damage with a mournful eye. It was bad enough that the bar had been trashed, but not a single bottle of liquor remained intact. Least we're alive, he thought. "King is so gonna kill me fo' this. Everybody okay?"
"We're fine." Elizabeth lowered her tray, picking off the fragments of glass that were embedded in its underside. "I can't say the same for our customer, though. No apparent injuries, but he won't like what he sees when he wakes up." The aforementioned man, having passed out in a dead faint, was presently on the receiving end of Sally's ministrations.
Duck King nodded. "Poin' taken. Where's Dong Hwan?"
There was a loud, exaggerated cough, and the upended table nearest to the entrance was rolled aside to reveal the irritated Korean youth, looking none the worse for wear. "I'm okay," he grumbled, "but I think I feel a draft in here."
The four of them watched in silence as snowflakes continued to spray through the shattered main window, piling up in neat drifts over the furniture.
"Fine, fine, so I'm understating things a little," Dong Hwan admitted. "What now?"
"Well, we'll need to get out of the cold before it gets any darker, and that means moving into an adjoining building," Sally said, "so I'd appreciate it if the men could at least help carry Sleeping Beauty." She got up and began rummaging around in the drawers for a torch. "Come on, stop dawdling."
A flaming chunk of burning debris screamed through the air, directed at the very spot where Blue Mary stood. She eyed it coolly, as though it was nothing more than a mere annoyance...
"Power... GEYSER!"
The tremendous spike of energy that burst out of the ground knocked it away forcefully, sending it spinning back into the inferno that had been the training grounds of the SSP.
"I see you haven't dropped the old habits, Terry," she noted dryly.
Terry only shook his head. "How bad is it?"
"Not too bad, according to Kevin – at least, compared to our worst-case scenario." The couple broke into a fast jog towards the shore, running against the wind. In between breaths, Mary filled her husband in on the situation.
"We're pretty sure that the original explosion was in the main building of the training grounds, with a small radius – only about one block's length. Most of our rookies got out in time, but it looks like my superiors are toast." Her words were chilling, and not on account of the weather. "The blast wave accounts for the rest of the damage, which includes the hangar where all our helicopters are. Fortunately, our underground armoury remained intact, and a good thing too: most of us were in it when the bomb went off. I don't know about the island, though, but I'd bet the bombings follow the same pattern."
They reached the banks of the Southtown Straits, where the remnants of the Second Southtown Police force waited. A man broke off from the group to receive them, with a small child clinging to his side. "Inspector, Terry."
"Any word from the mainland, Kev?" Mary's voice was all business.
"Causeway's down, communications too. I can't get word through to our guys on the mainland, but I don't think they'll be in any condition to hear us anyway." Kevin smashed a hefty fist into the palm of the other hand. "Damn! Kain..."
"Not in front of Marky, Kev." The boy had disengaged himself from Kevin's leg, and was now trying to get Terry's attention. "Right now, we need to figure out how to get back onto the mainland."
"Easier said than done, Blue. We can't get in by air – and even if we could, the weather conditions wouldn't allow it."
"Ahoy, coppers!"
The policemen whirled around in unison, only to see the submarine that drifted towards them. They trained their weapons on it, unwilling to risk another unwelcome surprise.
A small boat was launched from the submarine, hitting the water with a loud splash, and Terry could faintly make out the two people that got into it as it approached the shore. One of them he didn't recognise, although the striped shirt and red neckerchief the man wore marked him out clearly as a member of the Lilien Knights – as if the submarine hadn't been hint enough. Which meant that the fur-wrapped woman, therefore, had to be...
Oh, crap.
"Terry!" Jenet squealed, flinging her arms around his neck. "You won't believe how much I've missed you... say, who's this?"
She had just noticed Mary.
Terry faced two pairs of narrowed eyes, answering nervously, "Eh... right. Jenet, this is Mary Ryan, my wife. Mary, this is Bonne Jenet, who is obviously delusional and considers herself to be my Number One fangirl. Now will you please get off me?"
"You're no fun," Jenet pouted. She slid off, waving at an enraged Kevin, who was struck speechless by her audacity. "Didn't expect to see you here. So, who's your boss?"
The sergeant finally found his tongue. "What is it you want, Jenet? And what are you doing here in the first place?"
"Fine, I'll get to the point." The excited smile left her face almost instantly. "I saw the explosions. You people need to get onto the island, and I have a submarine and a few boats. You do the math."
The assembled policemen looked at each other in consternation. Every single one of them was itching to get to the mainland, whether from concern for their families or for a chance to get revenge. Yet few of them could fathom the offer that had just been made, and even fewer would have even considered making deals with lawbreakers – a task that most of them left to lawyers – if not for their dire situation.
"Of course, there are two things you'll have to do. Firstly, I'll need some assurance that you won't try to arrest me or anything." A shrewd glint appeared in the pirate's eyes: underneath the façade of ditziness, there lay the mind of a good businesswoman.
"You –"
"I'll deal with this, Kevin." Blue Mary cut in, and nodded knowingly. "As you can see..." She pointed behind her, where the training grounds still burned. "We're not in any condition to arrest people right now. So we won't lay a hand on you this time, but I can't make any guarantees if you decide to break the law in our city."
"Of course not. That's not all, however," Jenet continued. "We charge for our services: for transporting the lot of you, I'd say that boat rental would fall in the range of, say..." She began to tally off the costs on her fingers. "Two grand?"
Everyone else stared at her, open-mouthed. The only reply came from Kevin, who was livid. "Southtown burns, and you still talk of making deals? Why..."
Mary's upraised hand stopped him before he could continue his rant. "There's always a catch, isn't there?" she asked.
"I'm not in this business for my health, you know: take it or leave it. So, do we have an agreement?"
There was no hesitation on Mary's part, in spite of the reservations that Kevin and a few others held. "Yes."
"That's good to hear. Mr. Anderson!"
"Yes?" The man who had accompanied Jenet finally spoke up.
"Get word back to the crew, and tell them to launch as many boats as possible for our new clients. We'll drop the police off at Blue Wave Harbour." She winked at them before flouncing back to her boat. "Don't worry, I'll send you the bill some other time."
Hotaru set the envelopes down, suddenly filled with dread.
Everything was clear now: Mrs. Yardsley's accusations, Rock's reticence, the reason for his refusal to stay... It was obvious what he'd intended all this while. He had planned to give her the information she sought, and then turn himself in to the police... or worse. But by design or by accident, his plan had been foiled.
So this was the true face of Rock Howard. All that guilt was well-founded; he had been heavily involved in his uncle's dirty work in the past. Katherine Yardsley would never know how fully her suspicions were confirmed by the damning evidence in Rock's confession – but did Rock have anything to do with the blasts that had caused her death?
He hadn't been able to withstand her gaze, and when she'd asked him her fateful question, he'd fled. All this pointed to his complicity in the treacherous attack that had struck the city... but there had been no mistaking the despair in his eyes, and there was no hint in his confession that he'd had any inkling of Kain's plan aside from the man's intent.
So why had he run?
She looked once more at the other envelope, the one which contained the truth about her family. It was a triple blow to her: Rock's past, her own family's conflicts, and now the attack on Second Southtown... but this was not the time for blame. She had to stop him before he did anything foolish.
Itokatsu pawed at her feet, and she knew what she had to do.
Hotaru picked up the envelopes, holding them in front of the ferret's nose. She'd been trying that trick ever since her childhood: Itokatsu's keen sense of smell was almost matchless. But she had her doubts over her pet's ability to track a person down by scent alone, especially in the smoke-filled air.
She set the ferret down onto the ground, praying that Itokatsu's instincts still held true. "Please find him for me," she whispered, and released her pet.
Itokatsu shot out of her arms like a bullet, scurrying down the road in a brown blur. Hotaru found herself running at her fastest in order to catch up with him, her feet sinking into the snow where the ferret's scooted lightly over it. But she ploughed on, the doubt in her heart only contributing to her resolution.
Rock, what have you done?
Jae Hoon held up the flaming brand, peering into the pitch darkness around the edge of the building, but his mind wasn't entirely on the search for survivors.
He would have been hard pressed to describe his mood, but futility certainly made up a large part of it: it was too easy to blame Rock and his indecision for having caused all this trouble. He was tempted to do that – but Rock was somewhere else, and it wouldn't be fair to him. Nevertheless, they definitely needed to have a few words after the mess was sorted out... if Rock was still alive.
Focus, Jae. He put those thoughts away and scanned the alley which he had entered. But he discovered nothing new: scorch marks on the walls, shards of glass littering the ground, a snow-covered heap of clothes...
His suspicions aroused, Jae Hoon cautiously approached the large pile that lay in the far corner of the cul-de-sac, raising his torch high. As he drew closer, he detected a faint movement from the pile – it has to be a survivor, he thought. Now he was almost close enough to touch it. Warily, he called out, "Are you okay?"
There was a sudden spray of old fabric and snow, and with a screech, a stray cat sprung out from beneath the pile before scurrying away. Jae Hoon fell back, momentarily stunned, but he regained his composure quickly enough.
So, it was just another false alarm...
He didn't see the blow that pierced him in the back. The torch fell to the snow-covered ground, where it was instantly snuffed out.
"Jae!"
Kim Kaphwan saw the threat and cried out to warn his son – all too late to prevent it. He saw the light disappear, and it was as though a dagger had been plunged into his heart; he dashed into the darkness, heedless of the danger that lay before him, and confronted his son's assailant.
Warm blood dripped from the pale man's arm, forming a small puddle on the snow. Another larger pool had formed under Jae Hoon's prone body. And in the night, the killer's teeth gleamed in a death's head grin, and he prepared to deal the finishing blow...
"FREEMAN!" Kim roared, lashing out at the man's head. Freeman leapt back, out of range of the attack – but more importantly to Kim, away from his son. "Jun!"
He heard a faint reply in the distance behind him. "Mr. Kaphwan?"
"It's Freeman!" he yelled, striking with a flurry of rapid kicks and forcing Freeman even further away from Jae Hoon. "I'll hold him off. Get Jae back into the house! NOW!" He dared not take his eyes off his opponent, not even to check on his son; he did not even look back, not even after pressing the advantage with another attack.
He heard the muted slap of footsteps in the snow and the startled gasp of horror: it had to be Jun, he knew. "Take him and go!"
The snow flew up around them in a flurry, and Freeman chose that time to launch an attack of his own, clawed fingers striking not at Kim, but at the two younger ones behind him. Kim smashed his foot into Freeman's outstretched wrist, deflecting the blow. Discouraged, the cadaverous killer retreated by a single step, enough for Kim to glance fleetingly at the two departing figures – and then a blood-red streak of energy passed lightly by his side, drawing first blood.
Now they were alone. For Kim, it was as though he was reliving the nightmare: he remembered all too vividly the time when he had, to all intents and purposes, perished at the hands of this same man. And now, history was repeating itself...
...but this time, he vowed to make things different. This time, Freeman would pay for every single vile deed that he had committed – and this time, Kim knew, he had a chance to make things right. And he wasn't going to waste it.
"Come on," he taunted, and entered battle once again.
Rock continued running blindly, forcing his way through the biting winds.
He found his legs moving by their own volition, his mind unwilling to take charge of them. It didn't matter to him: he gladly surrendered any conscious thought to the control of the irresistible force that drove him onwards, hoping only to stop the madness from taking total control of his mind. It was strange, but he didn't feel the cold that bit at his extremities, or the sadness that he'd felt when he'd looked into Hotaru's eyes. All that had vanished when he'd felt the familiar, mind-numbing pain... the one that had been unlocked by the Raging Storm.
He recognised the sensation for what it was – the clash of bloods had reasserted itself in him once more. Where they had previously worked to unleash a devastating force, they now ate away at his fraying sanity, tearing away what remained of his emotions and leaving nothing but a soulless killer. And now, they were the ones that controlled his movements as he ran mindlessly towards an unknown location.
The instrument was ready. Now all it needed was a target.
His feet punched through the snow easily, wisps of energy trailing from them as he cut a narrow path down the deserted streets. He ran on unceasingly, not even noticing his surroundings, following the invisible path which he sensed and stopping for nothing...
And suddenly, he came to a halt.
This was where it all began: the place of evil which he had once rejected, and the same one which he now found himself returning to. He had never wanted to return – so why was he here?
Rock stepped into the lobby of Heinlein Tower, feeling another wave of intense pain wash over his body. He struggled to keep it under control, barely succeeding; he knew, somewhere in his mind, that it was his resistance that brought the agony, but he refused to let it go.
"Welcome back, Rock."
Rock whirled around savagely on hearing that detestable voice, looking directly into his uncle's eyes for the first time ever since leaving the underworld.
"So, it looks like you've come back after all." Kain smirked, setting his briefcase down behind the empty front counter. "I'd explain, but you're probably in no condition to hear me out."
"You..." was all Rock managed as he struggled to retain control of his mental faculties, a sudden burst of agony undermining his self-control. He clenched his fists, trying to fight off the pain, but only succeeding in igniting a violet blaze over his entire body.
"You feel the blood calling, don't you? It's a pity you'll never learn to control it." In contrast to Rock's tortured struggle, Kain let his own power flow easily over his own body, the purple plumes illuminating the hall with an eerie glow. "I guess I'll just have to put you down like the dog you are." He swung his arm forwards lazily, hurling a burning lance at his nephew without hesitation.
Just let go.
The last vestiges of Rock's sanity withered away, and his fury overwhelmed him. He leapt over the projectile in a flash, dashing at Kain with blinding speed; Kain avoided Rock's charge at the last moment, striking out at his nephew's exposed back with a closed fist, but Rock parried it with the back of his hand and slid away. The two of them backed away, each watching the other warily through blood-red eyes.
And without warning, they attacked.
The police, having landed without mishap, were already spreading out among the ruined buildings. They found survivors by the dozen: the harbour area hadn't been touched directly by the explosion, even though the secondary blast wave had damaged a fair number of buildings. At the moment, though, their primary objective was to secure a suitable area for the organising of relief efforts – a task which the inexperienced, undermanned trainees were ill-equipped to handle. They were quickly surrounded by the desperate citizens, who were even more confused and frightened than the police themselves; the darkness and poor weather only contributed to the terror that struck the people of Second Southtown.
The situation was on the precipice, ready to devolve at any instant into a scene of utter chaos, and no leader was there to be found. Their erstwhile chief, Kain, had betrayed them in the most brutal way possible, and now the pack was ready to turn on its own.
Bonne Jenet watched all this, sickened by the destruction that had taken place. To her, there was no doubt that Kain had finally gone over the edge, and the nutcase had taken most of Second Southtown along with him. "Are they all off yet?" she asked, her enthusiasm dampened by the way things had unfolded.
"Aye, ma'am."
"Good. Let's get moving, then. We'll stick to our original plan." She brushed aside the qualms that she had over renewing the contract in the wake of such tragedy – a deal was a deal, whether she liked it or not, and she and her crew had to earn their living by hook or by crook.
However, their client had just crossed an invisible line.
"You okay, Terry?"
He was looking out at the city from their landing site at Blue Wave Harbour. From his vantage point, all he could see was the glow of distant fires, obscured from his view by smoke and snow. To Mary, he seemed more like a statue than an actual person – the way he simply stood there, motionless and unheeding, worried her.
"Terry?" She walked up to his side, waiting for a response. But all she got was a half-hearted shrug. "What's on your mind?"
"What do you think? I'm worried for everyone, Mary: worried for Kim and his family, for Duck King and everyone at the Illusion, worried for Hotaru... and Rock," he snapped, an uncharacteristic response for him. "And I'm also worried for everyone else in this damn city!"
Mary knew him too well to take his foul temper at face value. "Trust me, Terry, we all are. But we can't do anything except to start working right away..."
"That's the trouble. We played right into Kain's hands," Terry rued. "He knew we couldn't do anything as long as we didn't have anything to pin on him. So this is what we ended up with... and I can't help but think that we might have prevented this by forcing Rock to cough up whatever he knew." There was a touch of cruelty in his voice, a harsh, dissonant tone that shocked Mary into speech.
"You can't force sacrifices from people. If I recall correctly, it was you who told me that the last time we brought this subject up." Their roles had been reversed since then, she knew, and it was clear that Terry had doubts over Rock's loyalties. Her voice began to take on a shrill tone as she continued, beginning to lose herself to her anger, "And believe me; I'm kicking myself even more for it! In case you haven't realised, we've lost more than half the police force, and these were people I worked with every day. Now they're gone – and as much as I'd like to sit down and have a good cry over it, it'll have to wait until we get the bloody job done!"
She paused, allowing her misplaced fury to subside. "All of us in the force knew something was going to happen, and we still didn't do anything about it. Anyone who remembers the days of lawlessness is at fault," she said, mitigating her scolding with a frank admission, "so if you're going to point fingers at yourself or Rock, you'll have to extend them to the rest of Second Southtown as well."
The stinging rebuke served as a timely wake-up call for Terry, who feared that some of Rock's more depressing habits were rubbing off on him. Mary had a point: the people of Southtown – themselves included – hadn't learned a thing from the days when Geese and Mr. Big had ruled. "And Kain's punished us well for our complacency. You're right, Blue. It's just that I'm worried about Rock. I'm sure he's alive out there... but you know how he is. If even I'm blaming him for this, who knows what he's going through now?"
"Have a little faith in him, Terry. If even you won't believe in him, who will? In the meantime, standing around and worrying won't solve anything. You deal with things one at a time, and handle what you can."
Terry smiled briefly, finally diverting his attention to the matter at hand. "As always, you're right. Let's go."
They were well on their way toward the residential areas before a sudden thought struck Mary. "What happened to those pirates, anyway?"
They turned their attention to the waterfront, but the submarine had slinked off into the night long before.
"Stupidmoronicflashlightgrumblegrumbledoesn'tworkgrumblemumbledamnlousybatteriesmuttermumble..."
There was the sound of a collision, and Bonne Jenet's grumbling was instantly replaced by an equally long string of swear words. She stuck her hands out in front of her, groping her way through the rubble-littered streets, but her progress was abysmally slow. It hadn't helped that her blind wandering had taken her smack into the middle of the disaster area – and to make things worse, everyone who had been left alive in the zone had probably fled somewhere else.
She gave up eventually, sinking against the charred outer husk of a building. Damn, I'd give anything for a light right now, she thought despondently.
And on cue, a faint pinprick of brightness appeared in the distance. She looked up, elated, and began to shriek like a banshee, hoping to draw the attention of its bearer. "HEEEEY! OVER HERE!" she screamed, cautiously edging towards her target even as the point of light began to drift in her direction...
She was almost face to face with her saviour before she realised her mistake.
"You!"
"Heeey, sweetheart. What brings you here?" Dong Hwan leered lasciviously at the pirate captain.
Of all the people in this town, I had to run into this monkey. "None of your business, peon."
"I take it you two know each other?" A woman's voice broke into their hostile conversation, and Jenet relaxed slightly to know that they weren't alone. By the light of the faint torch they carried, she saw three people besides Dong Hwan – two women, ostensibly a pair of twins, and an older man with a hairstyle that vaguely resembled a chunk of coral from the ocean floor.
"Yeah, we go way back," the youth boasted. "So, what's up?"
"Well, if you must know..." Jenet replied reluctantly, buying time to concoct a suitable excuse, "The causeway's down, so I helped ship the police over from the mainland. They're setting up a temporary base of operations over in the East." Well, it's the truth...
"Hmm, never expected you to be the humane type," Dong Hwan replied, completely oblivious to the disgusted look on Jenet's face. "Our friend here could use some help and a warm fire. Mind taking us there?"
Jenet noticed, for the first time, the body that the two men were carrying, but paid no heed to it. "Look, I need to go somewhere urgently. If you think I'm going to backtrack and get lost again, you're obviously mistaken."
"What, so you're lost right now?" the Korean retorted, catching her slip. The exasperated look on her face only confirmed it, and he used it to his advantage. "Anyway, I'll make a deal with you: help us find a place where we can take cover, and I'll personally escort you to wherever it is you're going..."
"And that's supposed to make me feel safer, how?" Jenet turned up her nose in disdain.
"...or, you can keep wandering around here in the dark. I'm sure you'll figure out how to get somewhere, even if you don't have a map, a torch, or a guide..."
"Well..." The thought of being left alone in the dark was enough to make Jenet reconsider her position. She chuckled nervously, withdrawing her previous statement. "I'm sure we can come to some sort of an agreement."
The ferret came to an abrupt halt, stopping at the mouth of the road that led up to the Expo. His hackles were raised – whether from fear or hatred, Hotaru couldn't tell – and he hissed violently at some unknown threat.
She finally caught up with Itokatsu and picked him up, trying unsuccessfully to calm him down. "What's wrong, boy?" But the ferret refused to stop struggling, writhing in her arms like a bag of snakes. She could sense, faintly, the reason for his discomfort: a threat to their safety lay down that road.
Hotaru crouched down and let go of her pet once again, waiting for him to take her down another path. But Itokatsu only ran towards the edge of that same road, hissing and spitting furiously. Clearly, he would have gone down that way if he could, but an invisible barrier held him back.
Rock must have come by this way, she realised. She made to follow, but Itokatsu refused to stay by her side any longer. He looked up with pleading eyes, as though he begged his mistress not to go any further, even though the faithful pet would have followed her anywhere if the need arose.
Hotaru didn't force him to come along – she knew that she was putting herself in danger, and she wouldn't drag him down that same path. In a way, she envied the overwhelming sense of self-preservation that animals had: it prevented them from making the same stupid mistakes that humans did.
She crouched down, hugging the ferret tightly. "I'm sorry, Itokatsu. I have to go. Don't wait for me, okay?"
And then she got up, making her way down the road that had been marked out for her. She looked back for one last glance at her companion, but Itokatsu, ever the obedient one, had already vanished.
Now she was alone. She ran down the path, past piles of concrete and brick that had once been buildings, all the way across the crater where the convention centre had once been. There was not a single living soul in sight –
In spite of the darkness, her eyes picked out a man-shaped silhouette framed by the falling snow. And as she continued her run, its features slowly resolved: a heavyset man, a greying queue, a familiar face that hadn't changed...
"Sorry, Hotaru, but I can't let you pass," Goto said impassively, and set himself in her path.
Notes:
This chapter came out via the high-speed route, so I apologise if it's a little rougher than normal. (I'm hoping to get the entire fic done by June.) If I missed anything, please tell me.
Peachrocks: Eh, that's the last time I point things out to you. (Just kidding.)
zed21: Fine, fine... it's R/H. But the journey's half the fun, after all...
