Authors Notes: I just want to thank all of my faithful readers (Hybrid Thing, I love you) and of course my darling editor, AL. I dedicate this to you both. IM at any time, guys, I owe you. To the newcomers I'd like to say welcome and you better review me unless you want your hamsters to end up in a microwave!
Kenji fell onto the earth with bruising force, as cruel laughter echoed behind him. He spat out clumps of dirt as he fought to regain his breath and scramble up onto his feet. A salty tang mixed with the mud he'd accidentally taken into his mouth, telling him that, along with a sharp pain, he'd bitten deep into the inside of his cheek on the fall. The former assassin barely felt the pain of his forming bruises and bleeding palette, however; they were shadows in comparison to the urge he had to run and escape what was so quickly closing in on him. He had just pulled himself up onto his knees when another sharp ache exploded in his side, rolling him flat onto his back.
The teenage zoanthrope let out a strangled cry as his pursuer, a shadowy likeness of his own face, grinned down at him. Bakuryu cackled again, reaching down to lift Kenji off the ground by the throat. He attempted to claw and kick his capture into forcing a release but all that Bakuryu did was grin and shake him mercilessly like a terrier would a rat.
"Look," he commanded, his smile so wild and deranged that Kenji felt the bottom of his stomach drop out. Bakuryu waved his hand. "Look and see all the beauty that we've created."
Kenji refused at first but found himself unable to turn his darker side down when Bakuryu started to shake him again. As his eyes focused, though, Kenji wished desperately that he'd simply let the creature within his heart just rattle his brains out. It would have been far kinder.
Yugo was dismembered in five or six pieces, he thought five or six because Kenji was unsure that the few pieces of sinew still connecting the one arm to his torso counted as severed. Long's upper half was close by, his legs and waist facing the opposite direction of his marred face. Shina had gotten off somewhat easier than her two best friends, as she'd only had her jugular punctured by a chance slice, her eyes still glistened with the feeble determination she'd shown in trying to continue her fight, even though the blood had long since poured from her body. Alice was near Yugo, or at least her head was, the big purple-red eyes on it open wide with the terror and pain of her last moments. She'd probably attempted to save Yugo and gotten herself cut apart by Bakuryu's claws for all her efforts. Kenji's stomach, already rolling at these particular bodies, went out of control as he spied the final corpse.
Uriko laid to the side, her only wound a stab to the heart. Her eyes were large and moist, she'd been crying in her last few moments of life, but not for pain. His best friend's eyes bore the look she wore when she was worried for him, when she was trying to pull him back out of the dark. Kenji's stomach rebelled and it rebelled hard, sending him to his knees. Sweat and tears poured down his face as he dry heaved painfully onto the dirt. Trying to wipe his face off Kenji felt his face grow damper every time he put his hands to it. He screamed, actually screamed, when he saw his shaking palms. They were red, red as the dirt surrounding the bodies of his brother and friends.
"No!" he shouted hysterically, pulling his body into the fetal position as he began to convulse. He shut his eyes, but the images would not leave him and howls of pain and betrayal from all he'd slain filled the air. "No! No! No! I didn't do it! I didn't do it! It wasn't me! It—it—wasn't—"
"Kenji, Kenji, wake up!" Yugo's voice broke through his tormented sobs.
The teenager's eyes shot open and he found himself in his own bedroom, on the floor by his bed, blankets twisted about his vomit and sweat-drenched form. Yugo leaned over him, his muscular arms encircling the teenager from behind and trying to lift him up of the floor. The older Ohgami's face was contorted with pure worry as he fell to his knees, hugging Kenji tightly.
"What's wrong with him?" Alice's anxious voice penetrated the thick sobs and convulsions coming from the mole zoanthrope.
"He—he's having more nightmares, Ally," Yugo told her, his tones drenched with fear as he started to scoop Kenji up. "God, he's vomited all over, this time."
"Yugo, this is too much, we've gotta get him to the hospital!"
"No, no I don't think so..."
As Yugo started to pick him off the floor Kenji's began to squirm and wriggle as if he was unable to cope with coming in contact with his brother.
"Lemme go!" he choked out pushing himself out of Yugo's arms. He landed half crouched on the floor and rolled away. "Don't touch me! Don't touch me!" Kenji crawled to the corner of his room, pulling his knees to his chest and burying his face into them, body still shaking uncontrollably.
Yugo and Alice now plainly frightened, looked at one another. Biting his lower lip the wolf zoanthrope motioned quickly to his girlfriend, telling her to leave the room. Alice pursed her lips, large scared eyes asking if he was sure, he might need help after all. Yugo, touched by her kindness shook his head nonetheless. He needed to be alone with his little brother for a few moments, he told her without words. Try not to worry and he'd be along soon enough. The auburn haired beauty nodded reluctantly before exiting the room, leaving the brothers to their privacy.
Yugo waited a few moments before he ventured reaching to the trembling boy.
"Kenji, Kenji, please, talk to me, bro," Yugo begged softly, standing to hover over his little brother. "It's okay, it was just a—" The comforting words were cut short as Kenji's hand shot out, attempting to push Yugo back. The elder Ohgami, however, saw the blow coming a mile away and caught Kenji's arm by the wrist, pulling it behind up and behind the snarling teenager's back as he trapped him between his knees.
"Get the hell away from me!" Kenji snarled twisting and kicking to try and knock his brother off. His skin was crawling as vivid pictures of the wolf's rendered corpse flashed through his mind; bile rose in his gullet and ran into his mouth. "Get away while you can! Go!"
"No, I won't," Yugo told him, gritting his teeth as he fought to hold onto the younger zoanthrope. "Not until you're okay. I'm not leaving you alone, Kenji, now wake up!"
At once Kenji's struggling desisted, his body going limp. Yugo sighed and sank to the floor, releasing his brother's wrist and reconfirming his arms to encircle his shoulders, holding him instead of restraining. Slowly but steadily the younger Ohgami returned to consciousness.
"Yugo?" came the sleepy croak from Kenji. "Yugo, what's going on?"
Yugo let out a sigh of relief, hugging his little brother tightly. "Nothing, nothing, it's okay. You just had a nightmare, Kenji. That's all."
"Another one?" the boy asked. "I—I don't remember…did—did I say anything this time?"
"No," Yugo told him immediately. "You just started shaking and puking again."
Kenji, face utterly lost looked down, pulling away from his brother, grimacing at his filthy nightshirt and pajama bottoms.
"I should go clean up," he murmured without looking at Yugo again.
"Probably should," Yugo agreed, wiping saliva off of his own shirt as he started to stand.
Kenji moved for his bathroom door wordlessly and Yugo pulled himself up onto his feet. They were about to part ways when Kenji paused at the bathroom door and looked back to his big brother with wide haunted eyes.
"When's this gonna end, Yugo?" he asked, voice barely above a whisper. "When will the bad dreams stop?"
Yugo instinctively reached out to pass his hand through his little brother's dark hair. "I bet they'll be gone really soon," he assured him. "It's just a phase, Kenji. You're gonna be fine. I'll be here to make sure of it."
Kenji didn't make any sort of reply, but Yugo saw something like doubt and fear on his behalf flash through the boy's eyes before he disappeared into his bathroom. Yugo winced as the door closed, if he were a better brother, he thought, Kenji wouldn't have been scared. The wolf took a moment to compose himself before he followed Kenji's example and left, crossing the yet to be unpacked den into his and Alice's bedroom. She was waiting on the edge of their bed just as he knew she would be, her face tense and fretful as she stared up at him.
"Is—is he okay now?" Alice asked, face pale even for her.
Yugo nodded. "For tonight," he croaked, joining his girlfriend. "God only knows about tomorrow though." Yugo let out a heavy breath, putting his face in his hands. "Jesus, Ally, what am I gonna do? I don't know what's going on with him let alone how to help him!" And he shuddered, almost like he was crying.
Alice responded in the only way that she could, she put her arms about her boyfriend, laying her head on his shoulder and hugging him as hard as she could. They sat like that for a long time, neither of them speaking to admit to what they both already knew. Neither of them knew how to help the teenager who was crying beneath the shower head two rooms away, trying desperately to remember what in the hell had made him shake like an infant in the arms of his sibling.
Interlude
Shina's eyes fluttered open shortly after the sun had risen. She glanced at her alarm clock that hadn't been set the evening before. Eight twenty five in bright red glared back at her. The leopardess grimaced. She was going to be late, Yugo had asked her to come in early Tuesday morning. Of course as Shina found herself a little restricted in movement she could have given a damn less about her promises to her best friend.
She almost yelped when she found Sy's arms around her nude figure, his dark head resting on her shoulder as he held her from behind. The prior evening's events returned to her en mass, as well as a satisfied burning in her thighs. She had the feeling it was going to be very hard for her to sit with her legs closed for a few days or so. Shina also had the feeling that this was going to be one of the more complicated situations of her life, something she'd pretty much known since Sy had shown up the night beforehand.
Shina had been around and then some. She'd had countless sexual rendezvous and one night stands nothing that lasted more than one or two dates. That's just how she operated, being as closed up inside as she was. And during each of those little intrigues Shina had forced herself to adhere to one simple rule, to protect herself from the constant threat of mental intimacy: don't bring the guy home. And here she was, not only had she taken a perfect stranger into her bed, but a perfect stranger who seemed to be her stalker. To top that all of Shina found herself unable to come up with any fears or reservations to hold between herself and Sy. An eerie vibe of familiarity seemed to run between them. What surprised her most was that this didn't scare her, and it didn't make her want to rip him apart, she certainly did not embrace the idea but she also could not find it in her to push him out of her bed and beat him black and blue.
Black and blue-er, she corrected herself mentally, as her eyes fell upon a hickie just beneath Sy's earlobe that had been bleeding the night before. Shina licked the inside of her mouth, one hand slipping down to trace a sore bump on the inside of her thigh. There were several others like it on both their bodies; it seemed that she and Sy both had an odd fascination with combining pain and sex. His back had probably bleed from her clawing it the night before, just as hers had when Sy'd gotten a bit overzealous with trailing kisses down her spinal column.
Yep, I'm fucked up, she thought with a wry grin, turning herself about in his arms with expert practice; Sy didn't even miss a breath. The leopardess looked at her bed-partner, who was deep in dreamland, a soft, almost complacent smile on his face. Not surprising considering we gave in about three hours ago, she chuckled to herself. She took in the clean lines of his face. Sy was gorgeous, there was no denying that, and though Shina knew she wasn't exactly a hag, she didn't think she was pretty enough to attract Sy's type of good looking. There was something about his features that struck her funny as well, particularly his nose, she had seen that nose one someone else's face before, Shina just couldn't remember who.
Looking at the outside world the leopardess knew that if she was going to figure any of this out without anyone's input she needed to get up and be alone for a few. That and she had a phone call to make, her mind flickered guiltily to Yugo, as she hoped he wouldn't be too furious with her. Stealthily Shina wriggled from Sy's tight embrace, slipping a pillow between his arms as he started to contract them. The ploy seemed to satisfy him, as he continued to smile and lay his had against the pillow he had with her shoulder. For perhaps the first time in her life Shina thought of the word cute in description of something. That quickly faded however when she started to rise off the bed and found that the soreness in her hips nearly sent her back down.
Shina rubbed her thighs, blinking in surprise. She hadn't felt like this before, of course she'd never had a lover like Sy before. She looked back at his sleeping form and raised her eyebrows. The reasons to keep him around were amassing quickly. Suppressing the urge to groan as she pulled herself up, Shina stood and after taking a moment to breath and compose herself, grabbed up a tank top and a pair of black pajama pants she'd left lying on her bedroom floor. She dressed after she'd crossed the hall and went into the bathroom, heading downstairs and into the kitchen once she'd taken care of business.
From there Shina opened her just recently refilled fridge, pulling out the orange juice and a leftover slice of pizza from yesterday's lunch. She ate, contemplating the cordless and the naked man upstairs as she munched. Her thoughts were jumbled. She needed to talk to Yugo, and she needed to talk to him soon, they were too good of friends for her to want this lying over their heads any longer. Of course Shina's competence at apologies had to be taken into consideration, and she was fairly bad at them to say the least. Yugo's mood had to be thought over too, Shina was pretty sure he would be more hurt than angry with her but nothing was definite and until he'd cooled down completely, if he needed to in the first place, Shina wasn't going to bother with him. And even as she was thinking about Yugo, Sy and the night before played at the back of her mind, messing up her train of thought.
Shina wrinkled her nose up as she stuffed the last bite of pepperoni and cheese into her mouth. Had her life always been so easily complicated? It probably had been but she hadn't noticed until right then, maybe because the problems she faced anymore couldn't be solved with her fists or a gun.
"Maybe I should have listened to my guidance counselor and become an investment banker or some shit like that," she mused after gulping down a large mouthful of orange-juice to wash the pizza down. "I think I could handle that kind of stress way better than this emotional bullshit."
The female zoanthrope eyed the reciever and let out a sigh. She really hoped that Yugo, accept a really short "I'm sorry 'bout last night, man, can you put, Ally on the horn?" Not only did she not want to dwell on what she'd said any longer, Shina also felt like she could use a little female guidance on her intimacy issues for the first time in her entire life. She was just reaching to dial up the number to her friend's new apartment when the doorbell rang.
That could be an omen, she thought, retracting her hand quickly from the phone pad.
"Just a minute!" she called hoping that she wasn't loud enough to wake Sy if the doorbell hadn't already gotten to him. Shina swore under her breath. She'd been hoping for more time to sort herself out before facing her "stalker" again.
Checking herself in the mirror as she scrambled walked towards the door Shina thought to grab her house-robe out of the closet. It was chilly downstairs that morning, and she didn't want any bible salesmen or neighbors gawking at her cleavage, it was far to early to rip someone's throat out. As she opened the door though, and saw whom her morning visitor was, it occurred to Shina that the last thing he would be looking at were her breasts.
"Bonjour, cher," Gado said smiling fondly down at his child, who stared up at him with wide, surprised, blue eyes. "Comment allez-vous, ce matin?"
"Da—Gado," she whispered under her breath somewhat stunned by his appearance. Until that moment, looking back into eyes that shared the color of her own, Shina had not realized that she had missed him so much. For a second Shina almost forgot how angry she was with him, she almost forgot what he and his ex-girlfriend, her mother, had done. Shina almost let go of herself and threw her arms around him…almost. Fortunately for Shina's pride though, and unfortunately for Gado's intentions, the younger zoanthrope's pride and memory held and she caught herself just in time. The look of half-caste wonderment faded from her face and was replaced by a dark anger as she demanded, "What are you doing here?"
Gado swallowed. "What?" he asked, his naturally casual manners taking control in spite of the angry look covering his daughter's visage. "You haven't seen your father in over three months and you don't even have a hug for him?"
"No, actually I don't," she said coldly, her eyes shifting to the shade of ice. "I don't even remember saying you could visit here, Alan. In fact my words were: don't even fucking call me, I'll call you when I've calmed down." She crossed put her hands on her hips, a motion that all close to her were wary of. "And I don't believe I called you."
The old lion let out a sigh and crossed his arms. "Come on, kiddo, can't we talk this over?" he asked. "I've come all this way just to see you, don't let it be for nothing."
"Maybe you should have called first, huh?" she said with vicious flair and started to shut the door.
"Janie, please!" he exclaimed grasping the oaken barrier before it was completely closed. "Please," he begged as their eyes met between the crack between door and frame. "Just give me five minutes. Please, if you're still want me gone after that then I'll leave, no protest."
"If I want you gone now, you'll leave, no protest, just like batwhore!" she hissed, the venom in her voice a kind she had never used with him before. "This is my house not yours, I don't live by you rules anymore, Alan."
"No, no you don't," he agreed, his features, which Shina now could easily place with her own, cool and smooth. "But I'm asking you as an adult and as your team leader, let me in and talk to me for five minutes." His good eye took on a piercing sheen. "Don't make me invoke the Mercenary code to make you return to headquarters with me, kiddo. I want to do this as adults not as an asshole."
Shina's shoulders stiffened with that threat, drawing herself up to her full height to look as intimidating as possible. This trick, however, she had learned from her father and he didn't budge. Instead he poked out his chest and looked back to her with an impassivness she could, anymore, genetically link to him. After a few tense seconds Shina let out her air and stepped back, opening the door all the way.
"Five minutes," she said grudgingly letting him pass her. "No more, right?"
"Right," Gado agreed with a nod, following the motion of her hand into the kitchen where he took a seat on one of the stools surrounding its island counter.
"So," Shina began tersely, keeping her arms crossed as she leaned against the sink. "What did you want, Alan?"
Gado looked away. "First and foremost I'd like for you to stop calling me Alan," he more or less requested. "I kinda miss being your father."
"But Alan, you've been my father," she said acidly. "Or did I mishear what you and batwhore told me in Paris?"
"Shina, don't use that name when it comes to your mother," he told her sternly. "It's not right, and furthermore—"
"And furthermore you don't even have a case to make anymore so you might as well save your breath, old man!" Shina snapped, her eyes taking on a gleam of rage he had seldom seen in her, if even he ever had. Gado swallowed hard once again. "There is no excuse for the lies and betrayals you two've been pulling on me for the last twenty-six years!"
"Shina, there are!" he protested urgently, trying to save her from completely closing him out. "You just won't listen to them! If you would just let your mother and I sit down with you and talk all of this over—"
"SHE IS NOT MY MOTHER!" Shina screeched and angrily swiped two glasses off the counter top. Her father flinched, looking away and to the sparkling shards on the floor as she took several deep breaths trying to calm herself. Finally Shina asked, in a soft, almost lost voice, "Why did you have to come here?"
"Because I miss you and I want us to get past this, fille," Gado told her, the guilt biting his stomach. "Come home, Janie. Come with me and the rest of the team to Brazil. They've been asking about you, Vansant even says he's not very comfortable going unless you're there too. Dieu…Marvel…Let's go back to how we were, kiddo."
Shina looked back up at him, her eyes ringing with anger and resentment. "How we were?" she asked incredulously. "How we were! Dammit, Alan, it's too late for us to go back to the way we were! You fucked 'how we were' up when you and fucking Jenny decided it was time, after twenty-six years of concealment and lies and the false identity you just fucking plastered on me, that you needed to show me the truth! There is no fucking way in heaven or hell that you and I can go back—Dad!" She said the last word as if it was a curse, cutting him to a depth that she knew had been scored but that he would not show her.
He looked away while she glared at him wrathfully, her eyes slightly moist, fists clenched tightly. He opened his mouth to speak again but whatever he was going to say faded in his throat as he looked up to see the look on her face. The cold silence between them lasted several minutes.
"Your time's up," Shina finally told him, glancing at the clock before locking her eyes once more onto her bare feet.
"Je suis désolé, le plus cher," Gado whispered, features going slack as his good eye begged her not to do what she was about to do.
"Just go, Alan," she growled. "Leave, go to Brazil, you can explain to the men why their second in command isn't coming along."
"Shina please, I—"
"Just go," she cut in, the quiet poison in her voice carrying more weight than all the shouting in the world could.
Gado winced from her tone as he slid off his stool. For a moment he appeared to reach out for her arm but that didn't last. Instead he turned and marched solemnly for the front door. He did pause though, as he began to exit, to look back and meet his daughter's cold, hate filled eyes.
"Vous pouvez me détester pour toujours, je ne vous inquiétez pas," he said loudly and clearly, refusing to look away. "Mais même si vous il ne changera pas le fait cela Je suis votre père, Jane. Toujours ont été, toujours seront. Je t'aime, ma fille, au revoir. (In English–You can hate me forever, it doesn't matter to me. But even if you do hate me forever, it will not change the fact that I am your father, Jane. Always was, always will be. I love you, my daughter, good-bye.)" And then he was gone.
Once more Shina had to fight and overthrow all of her childish urges that were telling her she needed to go after him. She held to her pride, wrapping her arms tight about herself and pushing down the lump that had formed in her throat. Never, not in a million years would she forgive either Gado and Jenny for this, she vowed to herself. The leopardess sucked in several deep breaths of air willing her nerves and emotions to straighten out. She couldn't let Sy see her in such a state.
Thinking of Sy she glanced to the staircase, surly he'd heard her arguing with her father. So why then hadn't he come down or made a signal to say he'd awakened. She frowned and headed back up stairs.
The her bed was empty when she walked in, neatly made as if no one had been there all night, the only sign there'd been anyone had been around being a note laying on her side of the bed. Curtains from her still open window fluttered in the morning breeze, the only sound within the chamber. Raising her eyebrows she picked the paper up and read the fine scrawl that had been penciled upon it in such a hurry.
Dear chaton,
Sorry to have left you without any word but I heard you yelling at a man downstairs and, just in case, I was caught in the middle of a domestic squabble I felt it best for me to run. Don't worry though, I'm far from scared off, I enjoyed you immensely and I think you might say the same about me. I'll come back to you soon, so don't fret, you know, after all, once I tell you I'll do something I'll do it. I'm counting the moments until I see you again, chaton, and I hope you feel the same.
Love,
Your Sy
PS,
I hope you don't mind how I remade your bed. I'm a bit of a neat—freak.
Love again,
Your Sy
Shina reread the letter several times, sinking down onto the bed as she did. She looked from the letter, to her bed, to herself before letting out a rather disgruntled moan and flopping back against the comforter. She felt a little guilty about messing up the hospital corners. She wasn't sure what was annoying her more, the fact that he'd left abruptly for the second time, or that he had thought her father was her 'domestic'. She threw one of her neatly fluffed pillows across the room, groaning as she remembered that she still had to call Yugo.
Interlude
"Jesus Christ, I forgot how much I friggin hate to fly," Rieji grumbled as he followed Nagi out of the airport baggage check bay and towards the exit.
Nagi looked at her silver hair partner over the tops of her shades. "Reiji…you're a crow…" she said raising an eyebrow.
"Hey, it's different when I'm flying with my wings," he informed her curtly, switching his back from his left shoulder to his right. "For one, I'm in control, I crash then it's my own damn fault. For two, that's a fucking uncomfortable, rocky piece of scrap metal! Plus there was hardly a moment the entire trip that a baby wasn't crying or the brat setting behind me wasn't kicking my God Damn chair! Excuse me for hating the airport industry."
Nagi rolled her eyes. "Bitch, bitch, bitch, that's all you do, I swear," she sighed pushing her sunglasses back onto her forehead so he could see her roll her eyes. "Don't even act like you were tortured the entire way, man. Because we both know you were compensated." Her eyes became suggestive, prodding him to remember the few trips they'd made together into the airport restroom.
A slow grin spread across the crow zoanthrope's face as he reached over to grasp his partner by the waist, pulling her closer to him. Nagi rolled her eyes once more but did not push him away.
"So what do you suggest we do first?" she asked as they stepped out into the Manhattan Streets.
"Rent a hotel room," he chuckled.
Nagi didn't waste time with rolling her eyes this time and shoved her elbow into his side. "Fun time's over, Blackbird, we have work to do."
Reiji let out a long sigh. "Yeah, yeah," he agreed. He looked down the street thoughtfully trying to decide upon his options. "Which would you rather get out of the way first, Nag?"
"Shina," she said dully, just as Reiji knew that she would.
"Well then don't you think that we should hail a cab and get over there?" he asked.
"I think that I should hail a cab and get over there, if that's what you mean," she corrected her best friend, pushing his arm off from around her hips.
Reiji narrowed his eyes.
"And what's that's supposed to mean?" he demanded. "You don't want me to go along with you to tell her? I thought I was moral support here!"
"You are, you are!" she said holding up her hands. "But, Reiji…Shina…She thinks you're a pervert."
"So? It's not like she'd the first!"
"Or at all wrong," Nagi added. She crossed her arms. "Look when Shina hears this…news she isn't going to be very happy. Do you want to be around Shina if she gets frustrated?"
Reiji's eyes widened and a thoughtful look passed over his face; he gulped.
"I didn't think so," she said smugly. She reached over to clap her partner on the back. "Hey don't look so down, Reij, think of this as downtime, man. Besides with only one of us at Shina's then that leaves you free to go and talk to Yugo." Reiji's face to lightened up at that point, as Yugo was probably the only member of their little troupe, besides to Nagi, who considered him a friend. Mostly because they both had minds (and eyes) that tended to sway to the best looking behind in the room. Taking advantage of the interest playing across his face, Nagi decided to prod her friend just a tad more.
"Hey, and didn't Yugo tell you that whenever you made it out here that you'd go out for some drinks?" she asked slyly, knowing she had sealed the deal.
"Well… guess I could drop by his new place and give him a heads up…" Reiji mused, feigning hesitation. "Are you sure you don't need me to come along, Nagi?"
"Positive," she assured him. "Your mission is to go to Yugo's, definitely."
"Okay then, if you insist…" he was already starting to hail his own cab. Nagi was about to follow his example, and had turned around when she felt a hand on her upper arm spinning her around. Reiji pressed his mouth over hers swiftly and hard, almost enough to bruise and making sure to take his time when pulling away.
"Don't let Shina kill you, okay?" he advised her when their eyes met again.
"Okay, don't let yourself or Yugo get too plastered, all right?" she countered.
"You're no fun, best friend," he told her letting go.
"And you you're too much, best friend," Nagi retorted. "Now be careful, please, and tell Alice that I'll talk to her soon, 'kay?"
"You got it," he promised. And they turned their backs on one another, proceeding to their separate cabs that had pulled up to the curb.
Interlude
While the sound of clanging metal, welding, sawing, and engines were music to Yuri Bremen's ears they were far from melodic to the ears of the man he was leading through the landing pad where his team was loading the last of their supplies onto the four Blackhawk helicopters that were waiting there. Xion, in fact hated the deafening roar around him.
"So you're sure den, dat the old lion has vent onto Brazeel?" the mammoth Russian asked clearly above all of the din. "He has left his second behind in Manhattan?"
Xion caught the man's eyes and nodded, not about to start shouting over the noise, while in sign language telling him the name and exact latitude of the jungle village that they were headed. Bremen bowed his head in acknowledgment and thanks.
"Good," the older man murmured, a sheen that Xion found familiar to his own heart glimmering within his beady black eyes. "Very Good." Then over the din he shouted. "Natalia, Serge, Borkoff! Here, now!"
At once the redhead followed by two males just below her in rank trotted forward. Xion noticed that when she was decked out in full body armor Bremen's second looked very much like a man. The soldiers stood to full attention, their statuesque rigidness making the silver-haired zoanthrope inwardly cringe with disgust. When it came right down to it, he thought, humans would beg and move just like dogs, if they had the right sort of master.
"Ve vill be stickin vith the original game plan," he barked. "Natalia, you and Serge vill taking your units to Manhattan to flush out the majority of da targets. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to terminate any of dem. Do I make myself clear?" His dark soulless eyes flashed pointedly to Natalia who looked away all to innocently.
"I said do I make myself clear?" the older male asked, his eyes burned on the redheads pale skin. At once she came to attention, though Xion thought it was somewhat grudgingly, and saluted. "Good," Bremen said. He crossed his arms and continued to look the rest of the four over. "Borkoff, you and I vill be heading to Brazeel to meet up with our 'old friend'."
Borkoff, a man of small stature and even smaller hygiene cackled insanely showing off his yellow teeth as he fingered the bowie knife strapped to his hip.
"Remember," Xion to pushed his voice above the clamor, his eyes coolly meeting Bremen's. "Nothing happens to Gado unless word is given from myself, Busuzima, or Shenlong. We're going to have use of him down the road and he'll be no good to us dead. Is that clear, Mr. Bremen?"
Bremen smiled, a thing that would send shivers down most grown men's spines. "As Crystal, Mester Xion. After all," he rubbed the stub on his left arm, the spot where his hand should have been. "Revenge is a dish best served cold. I've had many years of cooling, a little longer will be quite bearable."
Xion smiled, as much as he disliked Bremen's attitude he did have to give the man credit for style.'
"Okay, you whelps, Let's move out!" commanding mercenary boomed to his three underlings who immediately followed suite, ushering their personal units into the Blackhawks. Xion watched as the soldiers boarded and took off, leaving him on the ground with the base operators and Bremen's personal assistant. The Unborn smiled to himself as he the choppers flew away, melting slowly into the infernal gray horizon. In his mind's eye he saw a satisfied grin on HER face, and knew that his cohorts and himself had moved one meticulously planned step closer to their goal. Turning on his heel Xion made for his own transport, a jet he would fly himself back to headquarters. He could hardly wait to inform Shenlong and Busuzima of his news.