Chapter Eleven: Payback's a Bitch

Courtney paced down the street, her world narrowed to a small window just in front of her. In the back of her mind she knew that Gui'Yata was behind her, probably not more than a step, but she didn't care. That son of a bitch she shared her life with was going to pay for driving Teresa into the street.

She looked down at the slip of paper in her hand, several shabbily written lines on it that told her where her ex was living now. Teresa had written it for her, with still shaking hands. She would live, but there was nerve damage to her arm that might never heal, not with the primitive medicine Earth still had. That did nothing to calm her fury however.

As she paused on the street corner, orienting herself to the much changed streets of Los Angeles, Gui'Yata finally worked up the nerve to speak.

"You are being rash, Raha," he whispered.

"I'm being a mother," She snarled in return. Internally she was laughing at herself, she hadn't been Teresa's mother since the girl was five, what made her think revenge would quell the guilt she felt for abandoning her daughter to the whims of her husband?

"You are again a citizen of this world," He tried to reason with her, "Subject to its laws. If you do this you risk incarceration."

She spun and flung an arm violently at where she thought he was. Her arm whistled harmlessly through the air, "I know what I am doing! Damn it; don't pretend that you're my conscience suddenly!"

"You would do no less if I were being unreasonable," he countered from the shadows, and she caught a glimpse of his shield only because he shifted on his large feet.

"Shut up!" she growled, scowling at the woman who passed her on the street looking as if she were a lunatic. That would help, that the people here would think her deranged, talking to nothing.

"Only for now," she heard him snigger.

She sighed, stepping off the curb and striding across the avenue, to turn right down the cross street. Courtney paused again as she came upon a towering apartment building in glass and steel rising some forty stories into the brown sky.

She turned to the blurry outline of her shadow saying, "You do not need to come."

"I do," he answered, "and I will."

"I am not a Saru." She nearly bellowed.

"You are certainly acting as one."

She flipped him the bird and headed into the foyer. She made short work of the distance between the lobby door and the elevators. Pounding on the call button about ten times she finally stepped back and watched the slow progress of the numbers toward the lobby level. Courtney said nothing more to Gui'Yata now standing to the far right of the door, away from the button panel where he was less likely to get stepped on by any new entrants on the way up to the desired floor.

The action turned out to be unnecessary, no one else joined them. Many seconds later the door opened on the 16th floor and Courtney burst through the opening doors like a thoroughbred from the starting gate of a horserace. She moved with determined purpose, not turning her head as she took in the numbers in a glance. The Sougara reached over her shoulder to pull the mask from the pack Gui'Yata had gifted her, affixing it to her face as she pulled up just in front of a door marked 1685.

As it sealed tightly to her cheeks she was already reaching for the doorbell, her stance tense and her mind ready for anything.

It took a few moments for the door to be opened, but the man who stepped out the door was all too familiar to her.

"Can I help…" his brow furrowed, "Halloween is two months away."

Courtney only saw red, her foot coming up and kicking him in the gut before a coherent thought had run through her head.

"Woof," was forced from him as he fell back, the momentum carrying him into the back of a very plush black couch. His hand went to his side as the other arm held him up on the sofa back.

"You son of a bitch," she growled, her voice muffled by the mask on her face, "Close the door."

Steve looked at her incredulously, thinking that she had been talking to him. He straightened looking defiant. His face fell when the door closed of its own accord and the bolt was turned, locking the door tight to would be rescuers.

More slowly she removed her mask, revealing her face to the man standing like a stone still by the couch. It was a smooth motion that put that mask into the pack once more. For long moments Steve merely stared at her, as if trying to remember where he had seen her face before.

"You!" he breathed, "You're supposed to be dead!"

The statement was followed with a hearty laugh from her former husband.

"You little bitch, you've been hiding all this time?"

He moved toward her with an aggression that used to cower her. She was well beyond his pathetic attempts at dominance. She stepped into him as he got within two steps, hitting him with a right hook and following it with a chop from her left hand in his lower ribcage as he fell away from her.

"I warned you," she snarled, "I told you never, never to lay a hand on Teresa! You asshole! You drove her to the street – right into the arms of the gangs you hate so much."

"What're you talking about?" he sounded sincere, but she'd seen this act before, it was the same one he gave to the cops, "You saw Teresa? Where?"

"Like I'm going to tell your lying ass. I'm here for you, you broke your word to me, and payback's a bitch."

"So are you," Steve threw at her.

"Thank you," she smiled wickedly, closing on him again.

He moved like he was in slow motion compared to Courtney's sharpened senses and reactions. His fist lashed out and she deflected it with ease, as he bent, she brought a knee up into his gut and then pushed him completely prone. She stomped with a booted foot on the small of his back, stepped back and then made for a field goal, his middle the ball.

She then grabbed his fingers, pulling them back toward his wrist, and he was quick to get to his feet despite the pain of the other injuries she had inflicted. Courtney walked him over and sat him down at one of the very expensive dining chairs. Her sasa was in her hand before he could blink and she pointed it at his throat.

"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you Steve?" She uttered wiggling the blade just a hairs breadth from his Adams apple. While you are sitting here in the lap of luxury your daughter – OUR daughter is on the street scraping out a living by selling drugs and whoring herself out to the boys in her gang! How the hell do you justify that?"

"I don't have control on her!" he protested, "She didn't do that sort of thing when she was living here!"

"Yeah, she was fourteen when she left here, because you abused her!"

"She told you that?"

"Don't try to deny it, you bastard, I know you better than that!"

"She's lying," he uttered, his face completely serious.

"I'll believe her over you any day of the week."

"I'm telling you…"

She flicked the sasa and a rivulet of blood appeared on his chin. The look on his face was priceless.

"Don't even," She hissed, "I'm not buying what you're selling, and never will again. How does it feel?"

"What?" he still had defiance in his eyes.

"To be on the receiving end? I mean you've been abusing, for what, 35 years? It must be quite an experience being on this side of the blows for once."

His lips thinned and the dangerous part of him rose up behind those dark eyes of his. Courtney smiled and backed up.

"You think you want a piece of me?" she said softly, "You think I am still that cow you used to beat every day for seven years? Give it a shot Steve, I'm up for it."

Thrill went through his eyes for a moment before caution overrode the idea.

"I thought not," Courtney spout, "Just like the coward you are."

She sheathed her sasa and turned from him. She had only taken four steps when there was the sound of the chair thumping to the ground, and a strangled cry from her back. She wheeled to find that Steve was suspended off the ground by at least six inches a large clawed hand pinched around the back of his neck.

"Coward," Courtney repeated, "I could have handled it, Gui'."

The Soua dropped her ex back to his feet, and not being ready for it Steve nearly collapsed to the ground. He spun in a move that would have impressed a break-dancer to get a look at who had assaulted him. Steve started skittering like a crab on his hands and feet until he bumped into her.

"What is that thing?" Steve whispered hoarsely.

She grinned down into his green face, "You could say he's my husband."

She heard Gui' snort, but didn't look up to see his matching mirth at the statement.

"You married…that!" he said still clinging to one ankle while pointing at the Soua.

"A much more satisfying marriage, too," She smirked, "At least he respects me, something you're going to learn here - quickly."

"I respect you," he whined.

"Whatever," she kicked him away from her. Coming down from on high she drove her fist into his face, following through with the blade of the sasa that had come automatically to her hand when he had threatened her again. The edge slashed his cheek open clear to the bone, and immediately made his mouth quite a bit larger than it had been. Blood spilled freely down his jaw and neck, and his hand went there instinctively to attempt to quell the bleeding. Two more quick flicks of her wrist and more lines of crimson appeared on his forehead and nose.

"You are an insufferable asshole, and I honestly don't think anyone will miss you when you're gone Steve."

"W…what?" He scrambled once more to his feet, "What do you mean? You're not going to kill me. I love you!"

"You never loved me…not in any way that mattered. You loved having me as frustration release, as a punching back. Even sex was about pain for you. I'm never going to put up with something like that again."

"You can't kill me."

She lunged forward, plunging the Sasa into his belly just bellow his xyphoid process and angled it up until it pierced his heart, her hand sunk deep into her ex husbands innards.

"Watch me." She hissed in his ear, "You have no idea how many years I wished for an opportunity like this one."

She leaned back long enough to watch the light go out of his eyes, his grip on her shoulder slowly losing strength, until he was sliding to the floor. With a jerk she removed her weapon from his body and stepped back. She was smiling at the tangled heap that was now on the floor, blood slowly staining the carpet.

Her gaze slowly moved up to take in her only witness to the act. Gui'Yata was standing impassively, the expressionless mask hiding the more expressive orange eyes.

"Are you feeling better now?" He asked in an even voice.

Courtney looked down at her bloody hand, "I…no. He got off too easy."

His head inclined a bit but he said no more.

"You are going to condemn me now aren't you?" Courtney sighed.

"After meeting him," Gui' said, shaking his head in a human negation, "He was an ass, I see why you wanted him dead."

A wan smile turned up one corner of her mouth.


A/N: I knew it, I knew it...merph...here I am horribly slow about the updates again. My muse got in a rut of writing on Plague over on FP and well, she wasn't considering other offers for other chapters! AUGH...part of it was College, but I can't blame too much on that! I just won't make promises about the next chapters posting! LOL!

I wrote this particular chapter in about an hour. The fight with the Ex seems to be one of the easier topics of discussion here! LOL! Anyway I know a lot of you were looking forward to seeing this confrontation, so here it is. Please let me know how it came out!

Thanks to all who reviewed last chapter, I appreciate you sticking with me as slow as I have been about getting this stuff on the table for your perusal!

Thanks!

Darwin