Chapter 8
Governor General's Palace, Corolla A. Palau
As I was guided/escorted deeper into the Palace, I took the opportunity to take stock of my surroundings. And boy did it live up to the motif present on the outside. White, gold and lush red dominated the decor, with the occasional silver thrown popping up. Now I couldn't tell if all this was just paint or actual precious metals. The wood I saw looked real enough though. The comparison between this palace and the city I had arrived in didn't exactly settle well. But I decided to put off making a judgement until I had met this governor.
My guide halted in front of a tall pair of wooden doors with decorative carvings running across it.
"I'll inform the Governor of your presence sir" The female guard said to me before dipping into whatever lay beyond those doors.
I took a moment to check over my appearance. Not exactly the getup for meeting someone who ran an entire asteroid colony but I'd make it work. I tugged my jacket and checked to make sure my hair was all in the right place. I patted the right side of my chest to double check that all the important papers were still there, not that they would be able to go anywhere. It was more of a nervous habit.
The female guard came back out and held the door open for me, giving a slight bow as I moved past her.
The area I entered seemed to harken to a time when visiting dignitaries would present themselves before the royal court of a country they were sent to, with all the wealth and power on display to awe the dignitary. Two fenced in recess that held actual plants were on either side of me, with steps that had a freaking red carpet on its right head. I moved up, directing my gaze to the man who stood at the end of the carpet, in front of a wooden desk. And behind the desk, on the white wall proudly hung the banners of Axis and Char. Well at least this governor was upfront about his beliefs, that's good. Right?
He walked forward to meet me, enthusiasm plain to see on his face. "Ah hello my unnamed friend! Such a pleasure to finally hear from those in Neo Zeon. Why I was beginning to think my message had been forgotten by your people." He said eagerly, extending his hand to shake, as we met next to a pair of leather couches. I gave a firm handshake and surprisingly received one in return.
"Not forgotten-" It most definitely was. "-but it has been a very hectic nine months for my people I'm afraid. Governor Pepe Mengamon I presume?" I said with charm and confidence in my voice. As we released from the handshake, I reached up and took off my shades, my sapphire blue eyes looking down at the shorter man's face.
"That is indeed myself. But I'm not aware of who you are?" The Governor asked me.
I smiled blithely in return. "I am Full Frontal. The leader of Neo Zeon now with the death of my predecessor, Char Aznable." The governor seemed...acknowledging of my statement. Curious.
"Then you may call me Pepe, then. While I am saddened to hear of the death of a man as dedicated to the freedom of spacenoids as Char Aznable, the cause moves on." Pepe gestured to the couches. "Please sit. Would you like any refreshments?"
"Water please." I said as I eased down into the leather couch, which was very high quality. "And you may call me Full Frontal." We waited for a minute as the requested drinks arrived. I took a good sip of cold water before continuing. "Now then, if you're ready Governor Pepe?"
"Let's." He replied.
I took out the open invitation out of my jacket. "As you had stated in your invitation, I would like to use Palau's facilities to perform maintenance and repairs on my fleet. Along with refueling and resupplying my ships. After that, the fleet will depart so as to not draw unnecessary Federal attention to yourself."
"Well that's perfectly fine and despite the erm...emptiness of our industrial docks, all the necessary machinery that would be needed for you is still operational." Pepe responded. He started drumming his fingers on his lap and it looked like he was thinking over something. "I'd be happy to offer you the docks present in Calyx for repairs to your fleet and additional supplies are something we have in plenty here at Palau."
"Excellent." I smiled happily at the governor. "What docks on Calyx should I direct my ships to?"
"Hmm-Oh, yes. Of course." Pepe brought up the holoprojector that seemed to be installed in the table. "Have your ships approach from the north side, the docks in that area are former military ones, and aren't in current use besides the routine maintenance check. I'm afraid I don't have any mechanics or the like to lend you." He finished apologetically.
I waved it off. "No, no that's fine governor. My men need something physical to do anyway. Can't have them going soft on me, now can I?"
Pepe chuckled at my quip. Then I picked up on something he had said. "Pardon the question, but what did you mean by that area of Calyx being former military? If I remember right the Federation is not inclined to retire its bases." My pulse began to quicken. Really hope I hadn't just been duped.
To my surprise, Pepe perked up at this, his toothbrush mustache quivering as he smiled. "The answer to that is that the military docks here have never serviced Federation ships, and if I have my way they never will." His conviction in that statement shining through.
I raised a blond eyebrow, and leaned forward slightly. "Now that sounds intriguing. Continue please."
"Well that would require a brief foray into ancient history my friend." The forty or fifty something year old man explained. I gestured for him to continue and he launched into it.
"Despite its current designation, Palau was not always under the administrative rule of the current Side 6. Back when these four asteroids were first brought together back in 0078, they were done so as the first asteroid base of the newly founded Riah Republic, the original Side 6, here at Lagrange 4. The new Republic had determined that the mineral resources here would help fund the navy, which was in dire need of resources so that new hulls could be laid." Pepe shrugged. "I imagine that it was partially devised with the help of the Principality, who were starting to gear up for the Independence War at the time and looking to concentrate their military strength at their strongpoints, and not in their burgeoning neighbors. Either way, the war erupted in 0079 and the government declared neutrality."
He scoffed. "Cowards the lot of them. The Principality helped us when April Riots broke out in 0077 and were able to bring the Federation to table when without them the EFF would have started deploying the tanks to grind us underfoot. Yet when the time came to repay the debt of indepence, they balked. We sat out the war, despite the protests of High Command to the Senate. With the end of the war, things began to slip for us. In the new elections, the Unionists defeated the Nationalists and started the slow long road to accepting the Federation's yoke once more." Bitterness filled his voice. "When they finally dared to propose the notion in 0084, there were barely any of the Nationalists left to raise a dissenting voice." Pepe fell silent, caught up in old memories from the looks of it.
"I take it you had some connection to Palau in those days?" I prodded him to continue, engrossed in the story and the information I was gaining from it.
"Yes. When the Unity Act, the one that seceded our independence, was passed the Unionists reassigned the officers they thought would be trouble in the foldup of the military. I was a Brigadier General in the Army at the time, and was part of...well a group who had decided to not let the April Revolution go to waste." He shook his head ruefully. "We barely got off the ground before we had all been scattered to different posts and our ability to communicate was cut. I was given the 'honor' of overseeing the dismantling of the military dockyards here in Palau, and when the military was officially disbanded by the Federation, I was handed the post of Governor-General. Told to transition Palau to a mining colony, I was."
Pepe leaned back with a sigh. "I probably could have learned to like this job but then, like insult to injury, the Federation announced their Sides Reorganization Project that year. Suddenly Side 6, my home since birth, was Side 5. Loum was now Side 4 and Moore was Side 6. Amazingly, Palau was through an 'bureaucratic mishap' sent to Moore's jurisdiction. Then the issues really struck us hard. New trade tariffs drove off most of our regular trade and Moore's businesses weren't interested in buying from an asteroid all the way across the Earth Sphere. "
A silence moved in between the two of us, Pepe reminiscing about old times and myself seeing a new opportunity. Maybe Palau had a place in my plan after all, if under the right circumstances.
"I've often wondered about the Sides Reorganization Project governor. Of the implications behind it." I calmly said to the man across from me. Let's roll the bones. "Perhaps the entire purpose of the plan was to stifle nationalism in the Sides. In one swift move they changed a part of the identity of each Side. Impressive."
I carried on. "Still, I'm curious about how this ties into your current desire to assist our cause."
"When I saw Char Aznable reveal himself as the son of the progenitor of spacenoid independence, I thought that all of us who strive for freedom in space would finally have a leader to rally us together. I sent that letter in that span of time before his Rebellion was waged. Of course then Axis happened and I thought my chance to finally contribute something to pay back the debt Riah owes had vanished." He concluded. Pepe seems to have a very keen sense of honor that drives him.
"So when I came around you figured it'd at least be something." I deduced. Pepe nodded in agreement to that statement. He tapped a button on the holotable control panel and a floppy disk, I think, popped out. It was then handed to me.
"This is the keycodes needed to get the dockyards up and running, they're still connected to the power grid so no worries about that." He explained.
I took the disk and thanked him. I placed it in my jacket and took out a couple sheets of that nifty tablet paper, and laid them out in front of the governor. "Now Pepe, I have a question I would like you to answer. If that's not too much trouble."
"Oh course not." Pepe said, shifting a bit.
"Would you want to fight for Riah once more?"
To his credit, Pepe didn't even hesitate before answering. "Yes. I would give my life to see my home free once more."
"Now let me propose a statement to you: if I handed you a stick, would you be able to break it?" I said rhetorically. "Of course you would, it's just a stick. But what if I was to add another stick? Still doable no doubt, but it becomes more difficult. And if I keep on adding sticks? Well, pretty soon the sticks resist every effort to break them."
I activated the first tablet paper. "Over the past decade, Neo Zeon has been the single stick attempting to break the Federation. It is quantifiably impossible for one group to defeat the Earth Federation on its own terms, in the style the Principality attempted to do in the One Year War. At least without committing war crimes and colony drops. Something I will never stoop to." I examined Pepe and he seemed to be following me so far. "But if Neo Zeon had allies, ones who shared the same goals of spacenoid self determination and independence, then the task suddenly seems possible."
"And you mean for Riah to be one of those allies." Pepe interjected. Okay, I had his interest, now to sell him on the main item.
"Yes, along with the Republic of Zeon and other spacenoid independence groups that exist in the Earth Sphere. If those of like minds remain divided, then that allows the Federals to pick us off one by one at their leisure. United we stand, divided we fall." I stretched out a hand to the governor, purpose filling my voice. "Once there was an organization that sought to take a stand against the tyranny of Earth, an organization that sought a brighter future for those who inhabit this void we call home. They fought against the Earthnoid oligarchs that suck the spacenoids dry of resources and force us to wage their wars, then as they do now. But they were betrayed by those more loyal to the establishment and those who could not look beyond the past. These traitors formed the organization Londo Bell. But I see another path, where the organization known as the Anti-Earth Union Group does not fade into the history books as a failed group, or one that became bootlickers of the Federation they despised. I see a reformed AEUG, with the groups that have the will and determination to fight for the betterment of all spacenoids allied under its banner: Neo Zeon, the Republic of Zeon and more." Whorls of blue swept into my vision. "So I ask you this, Pepe Mengamon, will the Restored Riah stand with us? Will you help lead your country men out of the darkness they find themselves in, and into the future that shines with possibility?"
My breath came quickly, with excitement, energy and the desire to move filling me and I could feel a bright smile on my face. Pepe looked at me with a potent mixture of awe, surprise, and excitement shining from him. The two of us looked at each other before he finally answered.
"I will." He grasped my hand and shook it.
"But," he carried on. "How will we fund this group? I don't have the wealth, manpower, or means to produce the necessary mobile suits; much less the ships Riah would surely need. Neither do you for that matter."
Now this I had an answer to. "Well my friend, it's a good thing that these are still valid then." I activated the remaining pieces of paper, several documents of legalization coming to life. All of them bearing the logo of a certain megacorporation that was known for its neutrality and impartiality when it came to times of conflict.
"Contracts for the production of mobile suits and ships between the state of Neo Zeon and Anaheim Electronics, for a period of three standard years. Signed and Notarized in UC 0092, with some more legalese in the middle. And since the mobile suits are specified to come in batches, the ones for the second half of this year should be waiting around for pickup." I grinned at Pepe. "And I'm sure that there are still some old AEUG production contracts that are sitting in limbo, just waiting to be reactivated. All it would take is a...bribe to the right people. And I know just the place to get that kind of wealth."
"Don't keep me in suspense then." Pepe exclaimed with eagerness. "Where?"
"A little known place called Axis."
The rest of our four hour long conversation was mainly the two of us figuring out the lodging of my people and further development and explanation of the new AEUG plan, with myself helping the former general devise the beginnings of his Riah Restoration Movement. Where he would get the initial corp of the movement and who he had remained in touch with at Side 5 that would be sympathetic to the cause. By the end of it, I had come to the conclusion that I had chosen correctly in my first ally. More importantly for the wider Neo Zeon fleet, by the coming of the new year we finally had a base of operations again.
U.C 0093.12.31
Mineva Lao Zabi, Princess of Zeon
Mineva Lao Zabi was annoyed. And nervous. And irritated. And confused. And so many other things that made her feel like she was about to explode inside. All these emotions rolled around inside her as she walked through this expansive palace that seemed as if it had been lifted right from Earth's Caribbean region. Even the artificial outdoor heat was the right mix of humid and hot. That hadn't been a pleasant welcome, and she couldn't bring herself to say more than some placid compliments to her host, Governor-General 'Call me Pepe' Mengamon. Still she masked her emotions behind an iron mask, as always.
She looked sideways at her current companion, Marida Cruz. Mr. Zinnerman had a meeting with him and Marida had chosen to take an impromptu tour of the grounds. She had run into her...friend(?) when she had arrived at the palace, and Marida had offered to escort her to Zinnerman. Not that she was here to meet with Zinnerman, she was here to finally see just who exactly had taken command of Neo Zeon.
Marida took her through the palace, the pair of them gliding past men and women who were dressed as staff for the governor's abode and, as they got closer to Zinnerman's location, people adorned in a mixture of green and grey-blue overcoats. Those adorned in drab green offering her bows, while the grey-blue's merely gave her respectful nods. Officers from the fleet now docked in Palau's Calyx asteroid.
Eventually, Marida stopped in front of a single door, a door tucked away in the right wing of the palace. Two guards dressed in very new green uniforms and with brown pith helmets on their heads stood guard, rifles of some make and model in their hands.
"Name and rank."
Marida snapped to attention, her purple eyes staring straight ahead. Mineva felt like she was along for the ride at this point.
"Marida Cruz, under Captain Suberoa Zinnerman of the Garan. No rank."
The second guard 'tched' in annoyance. "I thought the Garan had already been processed."
"They have and my captain is currently inside."
The guards looked unimpressed. "Then why are you here?"
"I asked her to show me here." Mineva interjected herself into the conversation, the widening of the guard's eyes showing that they recognized her.
"Yes ma'am. But the Captain is already in a meeting and well…" A guard said apologetically. As if him denying her entry was a crime. It had been like this all Mineva's life, people acting like she was special or that the mere act of her being born was something she should be honored for. Those same people going off to kill in her name, as if she could ever want that!
She began to say something but was cut off by a chime from one of the guard's belt. A commlink.
"Let them in, I'm almost finished up here." The voice of a man who had haunted her dreams for months, who she had thought dead as the result of his last madness only to reappear wearing a mask once again but speaking a different gospel, spoke out.
"Of course sir." The guard holding the commlink stepped to the side and let her and Marida pass. We entered into a lightly lit room, which was surprisingly not colored in the same white and gold as the rest of the palace but a neutral blue color.
That man was speaking to Zinnerman and another Neo Zeon naval officer.
"The Claxon and Renewed are slated to be fully operational by the end of the first week of 0094, then the Rewloola will be given first priority. Dawson, I want you to drill up a full crew complement for the Claxon and Renewed."
"Very well Sir." The man in the grey-blue overcoat said. "And your judgement on the six freighters we found on quays K2 and J3?"
That man steepled his hands beneath his chin and hummed for a second. He brought up what she assumed to be an image of the ships in question. It was an angular, three sided ship. "If their reactors are still good then they can be of use to us, particularly if the ships are of a modular design. Assign teams to inspect them, Dawson." That man looked at this Dawson more closely, his blue eyes(that looked exactly like they had in her earliest memories) observing Dawson's face. "You're dismissed Dawson, now get yourself some grub and plenty of sleep."
"Yes sir." Dawson obediently said, before saluting that man and leaving the room. Barely sparing Marida and herself a glance before he was out the door.
That man looked at her for a brief second, but that was all it took for her to be struck still by the burning intensity in his eyes. "Captain Zinnerman, do you have any concerns about our planned trip to the Moon? Or any additions you feel to be relevant?"
Zinnerman, who had been leaning against the wall, moved closer to that man, Zinnerman's plain trench coat and green sweater starkly contrasting with that man's ornate red jacket. "During the Garan's journey to Pezun, we noticed increased Federation patrols around Von Braun. Since that is our final destination, it would be best to go first to Grenada then travel to Von Braun from there."
"You believe the Garan compromised?" that man asked.
"No." Zinnerman shook his head. "But I do believe the Feddies to the jumpy enough to check every ship that went in the general direction of the Pezun debris field after what happened to their little patrol fleet." Zinnerman said this is a small upwards turn of his mouth, as if all the death made him happy.
Well it made her sick to think of all those people slaughtered in the name of a dead war and a dead cause. Even the men and women who she had done her best to save from the violence had been eagerly huddled around the comms, cheering and whooping at every proclamation of a sunken Federation ship. Didn't they see that it was pointless?
"Good points Zinnerman but it looks like one of your subordinates wants to have a word with me." The...imposter? It was getting harder for Mineva to discern if this really wasn't Char Aznable, the man before her had all the facial tics and speech patterns that she remembered Char having but there was something so different about him nonetheless that made her keep her suspicions about him alive.
"Marida?" Zinnerman said, looking at his ward? Mineva had never learnt the relation between the two of them, only that Marida was extremely loyal to Zinnerman and would follow him anywhere.
Marida stepped forward and to Mineva's surprise snapped to attention, facing the imposter man, who was still sitting.
"Marida Cruz reporting sir. I have a request!" She said to the man.
The man nodded in response. "Proceed."
"Thank you sir." Marida said. "I wish to be issued a mobile suit, sir."
The man pulled up something on a tablet that was on the desk and looked over it. "It says here that you turned down the naval rank offered to you. Any reason why?"
"I will be of better use in a mobile suit." Marida responded. Mineva couldn't see what her face looked like as she was behind Marida. "Being in one will allow me to better serve my master." She heard Zinnerman groan at the most prevalent of Marida's quirks.
The man smiled at Marida, looking pleased at that statement. It looked like he had been awaiting it to Mineva. "You believe that you can pilot a mobile suit Marida Cruz?"
"I know I can sir." Marida responded confidently, tilting her head in a way that suggested to Mineva that she was meeting the man's blue eyes with her purple ones.
The man snorted, then softly laughed. He picked up a pen and held it out towards Marida. "Alright Marida Cruz, but first...catch." Then his arm blurred forward and she heard a whistling in the air before she heard the sound of something being caught. Mineva stepped forward until she was slightly behind Marida's left shoulder and saw that the man had hurled that pen at Marida. A pen that Marida had firmly grasped in her right hand, looking like she hadn't broken eye contact with that man. Everything had happened so fast that not even Zinnerman, who had a full view of the two, looked like he had fully seen what happened.
The man broke out into a full smile at the sight of Marida clutching the thrown weapon. "Well it looks like you've got what it takes Marida Cruz. However, I currently don't have any spare mobile suit to issue you, so you'll have to wait a bit for one." The man turned to Zinnerman. "I assume she'll be coming with us to Von Braun?"
"She will."
"Then she can get her suit there. One final matter: you'll be needing a rank Marida Cruz. Can't have people simply calling you by your full name now can we?" He said, obviously being rhetorical. "Congratulations on receiving the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade, Lieutenant Cruz. Head down to the Quartermaster to be issued a uniform."
Marida saluted the man and Zinnerman. "I am honored sir."
"Dismissed Lieutenant Cruz." The man returned her salute. Marida made an about turn and marched, there was no other way to put it out of the room. Leaving only her, Zinnerman and the man.
The man made the first move. "It looks like she wants to have a word alone with me Zinnerman, so you can head out if you wish to."
Mineva decided not to interject, and after a quick look at her by Zinnerman, he said that he would be waiting outside. She waited until the door clicked shut before taking a deep breath to steady her nerves.
"I'll cut right to the point imposter. I know that you are not Char Aznable and I will not support such a lie if you ask me to." She knew that this was a risky move. What if the imposter decided to have her killed? But Mineva Zabi respected the Char who used to be for someone to take his name and use it to start another senseless war.
The imposter looked at her neutrally, no doubt deciding his next move now that she had disrupted his plans-"I don't know where you got the idea that I was claiming to be Char Aznable, Princess Mineva, but I am aware that I am not him and have never made a claim to the contrary."
What?
"I am Full Frontal and it's a pleasure to meet you Princess Mineva Zabi." She couldn't believe it. Had he not heard her?
"I said that I will not endorse any of your claims to be Char." She repeated herself.
"Yes yes." This Full Frontal said. "And I will repeat that I have never made such claims to be the man. The claim closest to what you describe is my saying that I am Char's successor. Which given that I now lead Neo Zeon, is a perfectly valid claim in my opinion."
Disregarding that, Mineva forged on, determined to make this Full Frontal accept that she would not be his pawn like she had been Haman's.
"I will not give you my backing for you to be the leader of Neo Zeon."
"That is your prerogative."
"I'm not going to be used as a recruitment tool for you."
"I wasn't going to suggest such a thing."
"I will not help you start another war!"
"Good, I'm not planning on starting one at the moment anyways."
Mineva was breathing hard by the end of her rant, and she almost couldn't comprehend what she was hearing. He didn't want her to do anything for him? Did he not understand who she was? That she was the one in whose name the Dublin colony drop had been committed. That she was the one who thousands of soldiers said they fought in the name of. She couldn't understand it, not at all.
"So what do you want?" She glared up at Full Frontal, who had stood up from behind his desk and made his way over to her. Something else he had gotten wrong: he was far too tall to pass for Char and far too muscular. His scar on his forehead was also wrong.
"From you Princess? Nothing." He said gently, a strange look in his eyes. Pity maybe? "I do want to tell you that Governor Pepe has offered to host you here in Palau. He will bring in private tutors to see to your higher education and anything else you desire."
Mineva mastered that clawing sense of being overwhelmed and fell back on old platitudes she had learned at home. "Tell Governor Pepe that I would be delighted to accept his offer, and look forward to talking to him in the future."
"I'll be certain to tell him next I meet with him." Full Frontal replied. "I will also be assigning you a protection detail."
"Why?" Mineva demaded caustically. "Afraid I'll run away to the Federation?"
He still had that look in his eyes, eyes that were far more expressive than Char's had ever been she realized. "No, to keep the Federation from abducting, or worse, the person they put a multi-million bounty on and placed on the most wanted list of the Earth Sphere when you were a mere newborn."
She didn't have anything to say against his reasoning.
"Thank you for meeting with me Full Frontal, and I accept your offer of protection." She nodded to him, ready to leave this room and just have some time to herself. Time to think this over, see the layers underneath what she was being told. Just like Haman had taught her in Axis. It was what she was best at.
He gave her an elegant bow and opened the door for her in a gentle manner. "My door is always open to you Princess, should you wish to converse again."
Von Braun City, The Moon. Earth Sphere.
U.C 0094.1.6
He was running. Again. The cold air of the back alleys rushed through his hair and the surface his bare feet slapped against tore into the vulnerable soles. He could feel tiny bits of gravel tearing into his flesh and lodging firm. Still he ran, doing his best to keep going, trying with all his might to keep going. His lungs ached at him, begging for him to stop and rest just a spell.
He didn't dare. He had learned the hard way during previous attempts that his body would betray him in times like this. All it wanted was to give up and wait for the next stream of bliss drugs to be pumped into it. So he had long ago learned to ignore and downright mistrust what his body told him, always having to be on guard for the active influence of the heavy concoction of drugs.
"There he is!"
Shit, spotted. He managed a shaky grin. They had seen him later than the last attempt, just like the attempt previous and the one before that. This pillow house obviously wasn't as capable as the one at Zahn, although they made up for it by being twice as brutal. What luck for him.
Deeper into the alley ways he plunged, the time for silence and measured runs over. He could hear the noise his pursuers made as they ran after him. Okay he had a lead on them, now to maintain it.
Faster and faster he ran, straining to keep the distance between him and them from closing. He was closer to the streets now, the real ones with people, and lights and cars and real food that wasn't ingested through a tube and freedom. He would finally be free of this nightmare if only he could walk into the lights. That was what kept him from giving up, when all his companions had. They sunk into the bliss drugs with relief, happy to be able to block what was happening to them, while he fought tooth and nail to keep himself above the water. He'd make those who 'visited' him pay if he could just make it to the light.
He was close now, the bright neon light was shining brighter and brighter, far brighter than the glimpses he had caught in past attempts. Now he was passing markers of failure, where he had been caught and pummeled for his disobedience.
Still the men hadn't closed the gap. He raced past the stopping point of the last attempt and then he was there. The home stretch. A straight path that led right into a street of glittering light filled with all the things of his dreams.
He abandoned all caution and hurled forward, ignoring the glass shard that sliced into his right foot and the metal can he bounced off of, the ache of it telling him that his left side would have a tremendous bruise on it after all was said in done. Physical pain was a price he would gladly pay.
However, in his eagerness he missed a hidden alcove that connected to another part of the back alley system. The paths leading up to it was a slower and more dangerous route than the one he had learned and lacking of any interest to him.
"Got you, you bitch!" A figure dove out of the alcove and slammed into his center mass. The figure was heavier than him and the unexpected added weight threw his gait off, resulting in a rolled ankle that quicken his descent to the cold, hard, filth encrusted ground.
No! No! No! Not when he was so close!
He could see it all! Everything he could ever want, all his dreams made real, there for the taking! He just. Had. To. Get. Into. The. Light.
So he struggled forward, using his arms to propel his movement, the weight on his legs and lower back making them useless to him right now. He gained foot, maybe two towards his goal before the man's friends caught up.
"Good job Jean! Thought the fucker had managed to slip us." The crowing voice sounded next to his head. It was Smokey based on the stench of cheap cigarettes. He looked sideways and up, and managed to see the blur of a boot racing toward him before pain erupted between his eyes and his vision went black.
"Time to give him another lesson boys, have at him!" Smokey's call signalled the start of another escape attempt beatdown as the four or maybe five pursuers proceeded to unload all their life frustrations on him. Kicks, punches, slaps, anything they could think of to cause him pain was unleashed. In the midst of it all, his vision came back to him, shaky as it was.
But he was so close. Surely someone, anyone would come out of that light to bring him into it?
To his growing horror, apparently not. All those people wreathed in light just...walked by. He could see some of them even look, look at him and make a conscious decision to do nothing.
Why?!
"Hey lads, let's give the bitch some real fun." He heard the jinkeling of a belt buckle and the rustling of clothes behind him.
"Sure about that Slats? Jimbo doesn't like it when we mess up the product too much."
"Stop being such a cock sucking bitch. Besides, this bitch is probably used to it that he'll barely feel a thing."
Why? Why won't anyone help him? Was he wrong, did they not see him?
No they saw him, he realized, they just didn't care. He could see it now, they too were wreathed in the inky blackness that his pursuers bore with them. The same evil prevailed in their souls.
He wanted to sob, to cry, to rage, to hate; anything to make someone hear him.
~Help Me!~
No one was coming. No one cared. He began to see that it was all pointless, that there was no end to the rainbow. He remembered a faint female from some of his earliest memories explaining the meaning of his name. He was meant to be the messenger of a being of grace. The one who spread the being's message for all to hear. But the only message he could see was that everything was pointless.
Was this what the other gigolo's had realized at some point in their lives? That there would be nothing beyond what they already knew? A lesson he had simply refused to see after client and client had passed him by? Would-
"What Are You Doing?" An angry voice shot through the alley, making the thugs on top and around him pause.
Blue filled his vision. Pure, untainted Blue. Slowly, he lifted his gaze upwards, to the fake light at the end of the alley.
A miracle appeared before him. Out of the sea of inky blackness emerged a being who shone. The being shone brightly, brighter than any glimpse he had ever caught of another person. The light of the being was more tightly bound together than anything he could remember. The inner self of the being looked like the cords of a muscle, resting loose and easy for most things but able to tense and unleash all its strength at a moment's notice. It was overwhelming, no it was exhilarating to be in this being's presence
"I said,'' What Are You Doing?" The being repeated itself-no himself-repeated himself to the thugs.
"None of your business you fucking blond prick! Get lost!" Smokey's raspy voice replied. He could feel the inky blackness dripping from Smokey's voice, attempting to smother the Blue.
"Yeah nothing to see here fuckwad." The one above him, Slats, said. "That is unless you're interested in the good. In that case I'm afraid you'll have to pay up front and wait your turn."
He tried to cry out to the being, to beg him to stay, to not leave with the light that he had longed for all his life. But no sound came from his mouth.
*Bang* The sharp crack of a gunshot echoed in the confined space of the alley. He felt the immense weight of Slats slump off him.
"Wha…" A flurry of gunshots snuffed out the evil of the other thugs, and the being approached him quickly. The being's presence chasing away the creeping ink. He could breathe again, or maybe for the first time in his life. A clean, pure, and life-giving breath rushed through him as he felt the being crouch beside him. Oh how he wanted to beg the light to stay with him, to keep the ink from coming back and dragging him back for more bliss drugs.
"It's okay kid, it's okay. Let's get you out of here. Let's get you somewhere safe. Everything's gonna be just fine kid, ya hear me? Everything's going to be okay."
The words the being spoke to him made a part of him want to sob but it made a larger part of him feel safe. Safe in a way he could barely remember. In a way that reminded him of some dashed memories that smelled of pine and the earth. For the first time in his entire life, Angelo Sauper finally felt safe. He had done it. He had reached the light.