Chapter 18: Blood Runs Deep
No P.O.V., 1 day, 14 hours, 7 minutes following "Family Ties"; 12:13 P.M
"When is he going to wake up? It feels like I've been waiting here forever!"
Cole sighed. "Jay, like I've said, we don't know. None of us have enough knowledge about this to know, except for Nya, who is currently in bed, and Zane, who for all we know, is dead."
Jay looked down, as if suddenly remembering once again that they had lost their nindroid brother for the second time.
Cole turned for the door, starting to walk out when both elemental masters heard a soft groan. Both heads swiveled towards Kenshi, waiting for something to happen. Slowly, the captain's eyes fluttered open, revealing one clear, blue eye, and another milky, with only traces of the cerulean blue hue left. Kenshi's eye flitted across the room, taking note of his surroundings, before it finally rested on Jay. "Hey kid," the man said, attempting to sit up, although with great difficulty. "Why'd you come for me?"
Jay sat up straighter, answering with, "Because you're family, and ninja don't leave family behind."
The swordsman smiled softly. "How'd you figure it out?"
Jay fished the small picture out of his gi, showing it to Kenshi. "I thought I saw you right there," he replied, pointing to him in the picture. "So I called my Pa, asked him about it. He told me that it was you, and that you two were thick as thieves."
Kenshi chuckled. "Well he wasn't wrong. That man was the finest engineer we had in our RD team, and the closest thing to a father figure I've ever had. Good man he is, it was an honor to work with him."
As the two began to delve into a full fledged conversation, Cole quietly exited the room, making his way to the kitchen, hoping for a snack, preferably cake. Instead of a cake, however, Cole was greeted with Lloyd, bags under his eyes, a mug of cold tea in his hand. Noticing his presence, the green ninja waved at Cole, before promptly slumping over, his head nearly slamming into the hardwood table, had the earth elemental not caught his head before impact. Sighing, Cole uncurled Lloyd's fingers from the mug, placing it into the sink, before lifting Lloyd up, starting for his room.
Once Cole had put Lloyd down in his bed as gently as he could, he sat in a chair by his bedside, mentally running through a checklist of people he had already made sure was safe, and who he still needed to check up on. Halfway through his rundown, Loyd began to stir, grabbing Cole's attention quickly. Groaning, he looked around, slowly taking in that he was in his own room, and not the kitchen, where he last remembered himself to be.
Cole cleared his throat before speaking. "If you're wondering, you passed out on the table, so I carried you in."
Lloyd nodded slowly, putting the pieces together in his mind's eye. He looked around, before settling on Cole. "Hey, Cole? I have a question."
Cole answered, not bothering to look up from his tablet, a gift given to him by Zane for his birthday the year before. "Yeah, sure. What's up?"
"How do you deal with everything?"
Cole slowly looked up, a mix of curiosity and concern in his eyes. "What do you mean?"
"How do you deal with everything that's been going on? How do you cope with losing your brother twice?"
Cole let out a deep sigh, considering his answers before finally replying.
"I don't."
Lloyd cocked his head to the side, curiosity getting the better of him. "What do you mean, you don't?"
Cole paused a moment, weighing his choices. "I mean that there's no, real way to cope, or deal with losing those you love, not entirely at least. Instead of moping, I put myself to work, and I make sure that by doing so, nobody else I love will get hurt. I know that it hurts to lose Zane twice, and I know that feeling, the one that tells you that you could've done more, that you could've saved him, but I'm telling you now; that voice is wrong. What's happened has happened, and there's nothing we can do about it, only push on."
Lloyd nodded, processing what Cole had told him. Cole was very much like an older brother to all of them, similar to how Zane was like a mother, but it was talks like these that made Lloyd truly grateful to have a family like his; unconditional, but a family that loved one another like their own nonetheless.
No P.O.V., 2 days, 5 hours, 14 minutes following "Family Ties"; 3:20 A.M.
If there was one thing that Marasu Enatsu had learnt in all fifteen years in Atlas, and another five (and counting) working for and dealing with what came with employment under the S.A.T., it was that locked doors don't rattle unless someone was having trouble unlocking the door, or trying to break in, and considering that his girlfriend wasn't due to return for another month and a half, the Japanese man had assumed the latter. As quietly as he could, Enatsu strapped his wrist mounted device on, and reached for his silenced P227 sidearm, before sliding out of bed. Dressed simply in a black long-sleeved shirt and dark sweatpants, the man easily found cover in the dark, sneaking among the shadows, searching for the intruders.
Carefully rounding each corner, he was very suddenly met with a man clad in all black, his face covered with a balaclava. Both looked at each other for a moment, before Marasu quickly lunged for the man's gun, grabbing the barrel, pushing it up, away from himself. Surprised by the sudden action, the assailant fired three silenced shots into the ceiling, capturing the attention of his colleagues, but no one else. Still occupied by the first man, Enatsu had noticed the other two soldiers that had entered the bedroom.
Finally managing to wrench the rifle out of the masked man's hands, he fired off three precise shots; one into each leg, and another into the attacker's dominant hand. Capitalizing on the other two's shock, the former mercenary slid into cover behind the bed, before pressing a button on his wrist mounted device, which emitted a sub-sonic blast from his Yokai, which he had placed around his house for this exact reason. Taking advantage of the soldiers disorientated by the blast, Marasu quickly disarmed the man closest first, knocking him out cold with a well aimed blow to the head.
While tying up the man, however, the last soldier had finally regained their senses enough to lunge toward the distracted defender. The soldier pinned Marasu down, straddling him at the hip, a small hand half-wrapped around his throat. Raising an open hand, Enatsu somehow caught the punch directed to his face. Capitalizing on their shock, the defender rolled to his side, flipping the aggressor onto their back, complete darkness still shrouded over both fighters. Quickly taking control of the situation, Marasu pressed down on a pressure point in the shoulder, causing the attacker to let out a very familiar, feminine cry of pain. Slightly taken aback by the discovery, he quickly struck the woman across the face, then yanked her up, spinning her around into a choke; tight enough to gain and maintain control, but not enough to asphyxiate to the point of unconsciousness. Moving towards the kitchen, he grabbed multiple zip-ties, securing first the legs, then the hands, before forcing her down onto a chair, binding the ties to the back and legs of the chair. Pulling the balaclava off as he went, Enatsu walked towards the light switch, determined to find who had set out to either capture or kill him. Flipping the switch, he noticed that the woman was softly swearing, still struggling against the ties, which he had purposely left loose so that they couldn't hurt themselves trying to escape. Collecting a few specific tools he had learned were especially effective for torture, Marasu nearly stabbed the lady in the leg before even starting. I swear, whoever this person is, they are going to have one hell of a bad time tonight.
Silently walking around to face his attacker in a silent rage, Marasu Enatsu had every intent to kill this person, woman or not, for how they had trashed his once neat home. He had expected the face to be unfamiliar, likely rough, and sneering.
What he was not expecting however, was a soft face, one that he knew very well, and the only noise heard around the entire apartment was the clatter of a knife.
Before I go over some important stuff, I need to let you guys know,
Hey folks, sorry for dropping off the grid for so long, a string of events occurred, and it left me unable to write for a while. First off, I got sick, really bad cold and flu, left me out for a week. Then, my parents got sick, so I had to take care of them for a while. And after all that was over, I was just too tired to write.
So I stayed up until 4 A.M. writing this, just so that I can at least get one in before the month is over. If all goes well, there will be another chapter up by Sunday, maybe even a double upload if I have enough time (probably not but I like to hope).
Now onto the important story elements to keep an eye out for.
• Enatsu will become a key character in the story later on, and maybe the mystery person (that you guys have probably figured out already. Let me know who you think it is).
o If anyone here play Rainbow Six Siege you can probably tell what Enatsu will be doing in his spare time, just saying.
• Kenshi will also become a prominent figure in the story, especially towards the end.
• I'm still debating Zane's fate. Maybe he's trapped in the wilderness, who knows? Because I sure as hell don't
And that pretty much wraps up today. Again, sorry for going away for so long, but I swear I'll be consistent or at least warn you guys in advance. With that, I hope y'all have a good day!
~ The Titan's Shadow