Chapter 21

Confessions

For all his talk and bravado, William hadn't been sure where to start. He wasn't sure if he should start with his father, or with just Roman in general. He'd come in, something in his chest aching and ready to burst, but now he found himself leaning against the wall, uncertainty lurking in his mind, along with a dozen other emotions.

Finally, he swallowed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his scroll. He examined the red and black decal on it, then tossed it to Leo.

Leo caught it, cocking an eyebrow at him as William gestured. Hesitantly, the boy opened up William's footlocker, dropping the device inside.

"I don't have an uncle." William began once the box was closed. "I never did. But I did have a father who killed my mom and gave me some scars." He flexed his hands. "The person my father sold me to…" He took a deep breath, pulling his eyes away from the box.

"We don't need to know." Sandra murmured.

William shook his head, choking down the anxiety that clogged his throat. "No. No you do. This is. Important. His name is Roman Torchwick."

There was a visible ripple in the room. Most notably from Sandra, but the next most prominent reaction was Victoria. The air actually pulsed around her, her eyes narrowing.

"The crime lord?" Leo furthered, his expression interested rather than off put.

William nodded, turning to look at Sandra.

Sandra was silent, lips pursed, calculating options in her head. She didn't speak, simply nodded, her gills flaring as her spring green eyes burned into him.

"He sent me here on a mission. Kill or capture Ruby Rose." William shrugged. "Obviously I haven't done that, but he has a bigger plan in the works. We can't stop it, not unless you kill me."

"Why not?" Victoria challenged.

"Because I'll die." Sandra replied. "My chip."

William nodded. "Roman still has access to your explosive chip. If he finds out I'm not coming, or that you know, or any other circumstance that puts him at a disadvantage, he'll blow it, kill me, and come after you and everyone else I've been involved with."

"CFVY?" Victoria cocked an eyebrow at him.

William nodded.

"So, what's our move?"

William grimaced. "You have to run. Roman has to believe that, even if it's only for your protection, I'm still following his orders. Tonight is a good chance for me to get close to him, get Sandra's chip code, and deactivate it. Then we can remove it. From there… we come back against him."

"And what's the plan for tonight?" Victoria asked.

William grimaced. "That, I can't tell you." Especially not you. "But I need you to trust me." He paused, swallowing. "I… I can't…" lose you…

"You told us you had masks." Sandra spoke, interrupting whatever train of thought he was having. Her gaze was cold, calculating even. "That you hid behind layers and layers to survive." She shrugged. "Alright, but what tells us that this isn't another act? That Roman isn't going to track us down and kill us as soon as you're done with us?" She leaned forward towards him, and William could see wisps of red and black swirling in her green eyes. "What assures us that you will let us live?"

"Because you're the-" The response was ready, realized on the walk back from Coco and Fox's room. But the line still caught in his throat, squeezed into a whisper as his lungs refused to give oxygen to the words. "the-" He sucked in a breath, gritting his teeth as something swirled in his chest, aching and crushing his lungs. He closed his eyes, picturing those words, what it meant.

"The only thing I have left." He finished.

Sandra's gaze didn't soften, it didn't fade back to green. But she didn't reply, simply staring at him, gills flaring slightly with each breath.

Leo was giving him an odd look, something on the tip of his tongue. Victoria was much the same, but there was something else on her mind, accusatory almost.

"Roman?" Was her first word, staring at him for a while. "How long have you been working for him?"

William shrugged. "A while. He used me for… a lot of different things."

"Murder." Leo wasn't asking a question.

William bobbed his head, trying to ignore the warm sticky feeling that was slowly staring to trickle down his hands. He flexed them, splayed his fingers out and coiled them into fists.

"Spy work?"

He nodded again.

"What did you do in the lab?"

He looked up, finding Sandra staring at him.

He could be honest here. He could tell her he was the reason she was the way she was. He'd scoped out her mansion, directed the team that ripped her out of her life and pulled her into a world of darkness and monsters.

"I was a Warden for a time." He told her instead. "When something outlived its usefulness, or Roman thought I did. They would throw something in a cell for me to kill, or be killed."

"What else?" Sandra pressed.

"I found targets."

"Who found me?"

He could see her nails turn black, the anger boiling in her blood, the rage about to boil over. Her nails were digging into the wood of the bedframe.

"I did." One confession. One painful truth.

Sandra launched off the bedframe, lips curled back revealing fangs, claws outstretched. He didn't stop her as she took him to the floor, hands around his throat, claws pressed against the soft flesh of his neck.

She pinned him, neat and efficient just like he'd taught her. Her eyes were mostly red and black, irises with just a sliver of green holding on in each of them.

Then she stopped, hands still tight around his neck, not quite tight enough to choke, but enough to be a threat.

"Did you lie to me?" She hissed, her voice low and dangerous.

She stared at him, red eyes burning into his.

"No." He replied. "If I could give you Roman's head on a platter I would. If I could undo this, I would. But I can't. And I didn't. But I'm trying to do what I can to let you kill him yourself."

She stared at him for a long time, long enough that William wasn't sure if she wanted to rip out his throat, or let him go. She was at war with herself. Slowly, she leaned back, letting her nails trail across his flesh, leaving soft pink lines.

"You're at least a good liar." She muttered staring down at him, seeming content to have a position over him.

William gave her a smile. "Unfortunately."

Sandra didn't attack him again, but that might have been because Leo's hand had dropped onto her shoulder, squeezing it gently. He was shocking her too, sparks gently pulsing out from his hand, barely more than a tickle, but enough to let her know he would.

"Fine." Sandra stood, looking down on him. "But if you betray us. I'll kill you and go after Roman on my own."

She stalked into the bathroom, slamming the door shut. A moment later, the shower turned on, giving William at least some time before she got out.

"I'm…" Leo huffed, reaching back and scratching his head. "I think I'm going to go for a walk. Just need some air."

To clear his head and figure out what to do with a leader that was a known associate of a sociopath.

"Fair." William said, slowly sitting up as Leo stepped around him.

The door opened and shut behind him, leaving William in a room alone with Victoria.

She stared at him for a while, a question on her tongue. They both knew it was there, but neither were truly prepared for her to ask it.

William eased back, putting his shoulder to the wall as Victoria slowly got up. She walked over, crouching down in front of him.

"What did he do to you?" She asked.

That wasn't the question she'd been thinking about.

He shrugged again, smiled at her. "Nothing that I can't survive." Torture. Training. Injections of fear toxins. Fun stuff like that. Nothing she needed to know about.

"What will he do to you?" Her voice was hard, demanding for just a moment. For just a moment, her purple eyes, hard with determination and certainty, looked just like her fathers.

"Nothing he hasn't already done before."

Victoria was silent for a moment, examining him. She reached out, taking his and turning it over, this way and that as she examined the scars. It was strangely intimate, the delicate nature with which she handled his scarred and callous skin.

"Tell me about all of these." She demanded.

"You know the big one." William replied. "The others are nicks, too much tension on my semblance, or fumbling Moonlight Sonata." Her hand slid down his wrist, breaking away to tug at his collar, revealing two circular marks under his collar bone.

"Tell me about these then."

"I got shot." William grimaced, recalling that memory. "Roman assigned me a team. First job was messy. And after that, I didn't have a team. Two of them died trying to get to cover from the auto-turrets. And…" William hesitated, swallowing.

"It's okay."

"And the last… a rabbit Faunus… she died getting me into the vent. I went to pull her in, and… that was it. She was dead before I could even grab her hand."

"How old were you?"

"Old enough to remember her face when the first bullet hit her." William replied. "And feel shame and hate and regret."

Victoria nodded, letting silence take over again. Finally she nodded again, slipping away. "Did you know my mom abused me?" She finally asked. "I know it's not the same, not like getting shot, or watching someone die." She hesitated, unsure of herself for a moment, then continued. "… A scar for a scar right?"

William snorted, then nodded. How long ago had he told her that line? He peeled his gaze off the floor, watching as she eased her tank top up, revealing what he always suspected.

There were only four or five scars on her stomach, but William knew they had been deep when they happened. Deep and thin. Now they were pink, just a little puckered, a silver gleam where they once had been.

"My mother." Victoria said, thumb reaching down to stroke a thin small scar. "I was only hospitalized for one of them. Around the time they took me away from her."

"Kitchen knife?" William asked.

Victoria nodded. "This one was the bread knife." She smiled, but the expression wasn't happy. "Surprise surprise, it actually cuts flesh very well." She swallowed, pulling her shirt back down. "I had to have surgery. Some internal bleeding. A- A-." She hesitated, then swallowed, hands curling together as her eyes dropped to stare at her nails.

William followed her line of thought, recognizing where that wound was. Or more specifically, over what it was.

"Kids?"

Victoria didn't reply, hands folding over her mouth. Her eyes watered, but she didn't cry, just bowed her head and took a few deep breaths. "It's just something to consider. I hadn't thought about it in a while. Never really thought there would be anyone I would want to have kids with."

"What changed?"

She didn't reply immediately, just shrugged. She mulled her words over, chewed on them for a time before her lips parted, hesitant as she voiced her thoughts. "I… I guess you did. In a way."

William cocked an eyebrow. "Are you telling me you want to have my babies?"

Victoria gave him a bewildered look, violet eyes going wide. Her hands fell away from her mouth as her neck and cheeks slowly turned the color red. She snapped her mouth closed, but only sputtered when she went to speak. Then she huffed, rolling her eyes.

"Not on your life." She replied. "Just…" She shrugged. "It's nice to have something to live for. And… I guess that made me think of the future."

"Where you're having my babies." William insisted, a sly grin on his lips. Victoria glared at him, and he wondered if he was teasing her too much about it.

Probably.

Probably worth it though.

"You would be a shit dad." She informed him. "All gloomy and depressed." She snorted, "And I can do that all on my own. No need for my kids to get a double dose of it."

William cracked a grin at that.

The bathroom door popped open and William registered the fluffy blue towel before he registered the disgusted look on her face.

"You two," She started slowly, "either need to stop flirting all together, or get locked in a closet."

Both of them looked at each other, but while Victoria looked amused, and William mimicked the expression, he could feel the heat rising up the back of his neck at that accusation. He had been flirting. How badly?

"Right…" He muttered. "So. Uh. Leaving?"

"We'll start packing." Victoria said. "But. On one condition for me." She stood up, stretching. "You come back."

William shrugged. "Well. I can try my best." Victoria wasn't taking that for an answer, she stepped up to him, stopping over him and frowning.

"No. You're coming back." She demanded. "Alive. And fine. And soon. Don't play with us. You asked us to trust you. And this is what my trust demands."

William pursed his lips, looking up into those violet eyes that haunted his nightmares. He wondered if her father made that same promise to her each night before he went to work.

He wondered if he said it to her the night he died. He wondered if he would be lying if he said it to her now.

"I promise." He said, unsure if he was lying or not as he stuck his hand out.

She took it, squeezing his hand tightly as she hauled him to his feet. She held his gaze, not giving him room to back away. "You better." She punched him in the side, hard enough to hurt, but not hard enough to make him flinch.

"You better." She repeated.