Much of the night was able to pass uneventfully after that. Vaukt and Zha were able to proceed on their dinner date to a suburban restaurant, with Vaukt relenting and switching to trews of the same pattern as his kilt, but still keeping his overall Highlander attire going. Kazak, meanwhile, remained behind at the ranch, feet kicked up on the table, watching a DVD copy of a Clint Eastwood western on the flat screen flashing idiot box.
"Why don't we have a dishwasher again?!" Purple yelled from the kitchen, he and Red sentenced to clean up after dinner. The two Tallest being the ranch hands as part of their exile.
"Because that'd be too easy. Not to mention use up a lot of power and needless water." Kazak replied, "Now shut it, this is a good movie."
"Which one?"
"Fistful of Dollars."
"Ewww. I live this, I don't wanna see it on TV!"
"Then go to bed when you're done, idiot."
"Why can't we ever do anything we want?"
"Because, apparently, this is punishment…" Red muttered, disgruntled as he stacked plates in the cabinet.
"Punishment for what? What did we do to deserve this?!" Purple shrilly decried, whining. "This planet is awful and I hate it! I wanna go home!"
"If you two don't shut up, I'm gonna come in there and kick both your asses." Kazak warned, sternly, and he meant it.
"Knock it off." Red grumbled at his fellow former ruler. "Sooner this is done, sooner you can go upstairs and cry about it."
"I'm not crying! You're just…okay with this?"
"It was this or die. What else is there?"
"...I'm starting to miss T'Daali."
"Stop whining and dry the silverware."
Kazak sighed loudly, a HK Mk 23 coming out of a leather holster on his waist and slamming down loudly on the table next to him. Purple looked at the weapon…some real big iron…and Scout Snipers weren't the type to fool around. He quickly resumed his chore, quiet, not so quick to tempt death on a backwater.
"Kazak." Red tiredly sighed, watching as Purple hurriedly busied himself. "...can I ask you something?"
"What, why I got a problem with the two of you or something?" With Purple silenced, the large handgun returned to its place in its holster.
"No…I already know why you don't like us. That hasn't changed…no…the truth is what is to become of us? Is this…it? Indentured servitude until one of us dies? Exiled to this…planet, for lack of a better term…to work on this…dirt farm?"
"...Basically that. You're both stuck here, I'm an unofficial prison warden as it were. Only reason you two haven't found your way into a vat of acid is what the General said. So long as you two idiots still live, even if it's ruining my tranquility, Grimm can't assume full control of the Empire. You're both means to an end. After that? Well, I'm content to put a forty five in both your skulls but that's up to the bosses, not me."
"So that's it then? Soon as you all…accomplish whatever it is you're after, we're good as dead?" Red summarized with a disbelieving huff. "Why bother dragging it out? Just to inconvenience Grimm?"
"And just think about what he would do if he had your full authority."
"What makes you think this will stop him? Clearly he doesn't care what he kills or destroys to get what he wants." The former ruler reasoned, obviously the "brains" of the pair. "I may be out of the loop, but I caught enough on the trip here from Vaukt…the Imperial Standard won't stop him and when it does, he'll rewrite it to suit his needs."
"Are you trying to get us killed?" Purple incredulously asked of him with a rattle of the silverware drawer being closed.
"No…trying to figure out what the end goal is here. If there's no way out of this, why keep doing it? What good does it do for them? For us?"
"And I can't read Vult's mind, or Byte's, I don't know what they exactly plan with you two." Kazak paused his movie, standing up and going towards the kitchen, stopping short to lean against a wall. "What I would love to do to the two of you and what they have planned could be two entirely different things. I mean, shit, I'd be content to fucking retire here if there wasn't a war going on. You two have any inkling what it's like to find out you're actually good for something other than what you were mass produced for? You have any idea at all? What the Empire really is? What it's taken from us?"
"No, because no one will tell us anything." Red answered with agitation at him, huffing to regain his composure. "All of you are keeping this like some…great secret and we're absolutely detesible and abhorrent. You all clearly know something we don't and aren't sharing. Far as I'm aware of, we were locked up because Grimm got too big for his pants and turned Internal Affairs into his own personal army against us. Now we're just a game piece on a board as political prisoners."
Kazak walked over to a cupboard in the living room, withdrawing a dataslate, pulling up some relevant data, the processing center he personally witnessed on Devastis, all the data behind it, the relevant data pulled up by Corr courtesy of Byte attached.
"We're all pieces on a chess board. You two were as well for the Control Brains, you just never knew it." He held out the dataslate to Red. "Doubt you even read the report in the first place, but maybe you should start here. Processing Center Zero Seven on Devastis, where our Vortian friends made their hiding spot…very revealing the stuff left behind in there."
The former crimson leader suspiciously eyed the Scout Sniper before accepting the offered dataslate from him.
"Why share this now? You've kept this from us for months." He reasoned, opening the report to idly begin skimming through its contents.
"Lemme see!" Purple scrambled, butting in to look over his shoulder.
"Quit, knock it off!" He pushed him away to continue perusing the data.
His scrolling slowed from flicks to a crawl, clearly reading in detail on particular passages catching his interest. Red's expression shifted between confusion, annoyance, masked shock, and paling horror the deeper he dived into the contents of the report and its attached files. Stills taken from helmet cams from the team made the horrors in words alone a reality. He found himself sitting at the kitchen table, stunned.
The contents of the processing center and what took place in itself was not the most graphic or damning…but the implication of an era before the Empire and what it stood for…and what was taken from them in the process beneath this Grand Design. Clearly distraught, the dataslate fell from his hand onto the table, looking up to Kazak in silence. It was there. All of it. The dark truth behind the Irken…and why the schism they found themselves at the forefront of had begun tearing their people asunder.
"...this…doesn't seem possible…but it's there…and there's more to it, isn't there?"
"A lot…and we have someone who lived through that once more among the living back with the rest of the team." Kazak sighed, "Guess either Byte or IIA had something to do with the two of you never laying eyes on that in the first place."
"What's the matter? You look like you saw a ghost."
"It's a lie…"
"What is?"
"All of it. The Empire. It's a…lie."
"...you're starting to scare me."
"Look, it's right here!" He gestured, tapping the dataslate insistently. "The millenia-long reign of supremacy? The vast interstellar empire spanning galaxies? It's…a lie…"
"You're just going to believe whatever they show you?" Purple scoffed, snatching up the dataslate for himself to read. "Let's see…Devastis…processing center…General Krad…Grand De-...huh…that date don't look right…"
"Because it isn't, the one we know isn't. We're not a millennia old empire. We're a centuries old perversion of a rotten corpse of a government that became slaves to the very technologies and oppulence they ended up creating," Kazak summarized
"The Control Brains…" Red summarized in realization.
"What 'bout them?" Purple queried, confused. "Surely they'd know what's going on with all of this dookie."
"No, they're part of this…if what he's saying is true and this Grand Design…they were used as part of this to make it happen…a means of control."
"Well…yeah, how else are you gonna manage a bamillion trillion different people across the universe?"
"Because on a natural level, that's what you have local governments do." Kazak shook his head, "Apparently the government rotted long before on Irk. The political establishment granted more power unto themselves over everyday life in the central government. Problem with that, though, you get far enough away people can just ignore you. Enter the Control Brains. Why worry about people ignoring you when you can just engineer their choices for them?"
"PAK programming…assignment…duty…"
"Is this why everyone's got their antenna in a twist? Being told what to do and how to do it? I thought everyone liked having direction and purpose!" Purple huffed, clearly failing to grasp the truth.
Red turned to look at him in sincere seriousness.
"...is it true direction and purpose when it isn't your own to begin with?"
"Yeah and how do you like the direction and purpose right about now, dumbass?" Kazak glared directly at Purple.
"First of all, rude. Second of all, I don't much care for it. I didn't want to come here but someone…" He glared at Red. "Thought this was a better alternative to…whatever was going to happen at T'Daali."
"If Niz wasn't going to execute us, Grimm or Xilch would have...we were dead-to-rights if we remained. Even so…the future they're fighting for doesn't have us in it…so maybe it's a delay of the inevitably same outcome."
"Yeah, I'm sure Niz would've painted the cell wall with your brains if you stayed there." Kazak huffed, "It doesn't…mainly because you two, like it or not, kinda the walking symbols of what that old rotten Republic ended up becoming. Courtesy of Grimm knocking off Miyuki and Spork with his little pet tool." He took the dataslate back, more taps pulling up the conversation Grimm had with Skrem, sliding it back to Red for a look.
"Little pet tool?" Red's brow furrowed, bringing the dataslate back up to read. "Invader Skrem?"
"Hey, that's the jerk from the Great Assigning!"
"Kazak."
The Scout Sniper turned to look over his shoulder, seeing Tak, fresh out of the shower in casual sleepwear. Her pursed expression of barely-contained anger left little to the imagination.
"...do I even want to know what you're showing them?"
"They saw the Processing Center on Devastis. One of them gets it, the other's a smoothbrain. Just showing them the conversation Skrem had with Grimm about Zim."
"Haha, he called you smoothbrained." Purple grinned at Red, oblivious.
Kazak only gestured to Purple to prove his point. "They never saw the report Vult sent them about it in the first place. I can only imagine why."
She didn't immediately answer. Rather, she did her best to remain composed as violet eyes closed with a deep inhale and slow, shaky exhale of breath. Calm. Resolute. Centered.
"...I think it's past their bedtime."
"What? Sin-"
"Since now. It's bedtime."
"Bu-"
"Red…Purple…I will not say it again. Take the dataslate. Go upstairs. Now."
The tone and expression were not to be trifled with. Even if she was far shorter than them, the menacing presence she carried…why were they all so mean?
"Wooow, I sure am sleepy…" Purple feigned a yawn with a stretch, making sure to insistently take up Red by his collar to rise and follow after him. "Well, good night you two, see you bright and early in the morning!"
Kazak sighed as they both left, looking at Tak who still held her look of irritation. "I know that look. Fine, whatever, call me an idiot. Much as I'm angry at them, damn it, they have some right to know. Are we any better than the others if we keep it from them? It makes them more compliant and resistant, I see that as a plus."
A weary hand rose to rub at her eyes, still mentally squashing her rising temper over the matter before finally speaking.
"...you're not wrong. About keeping it from them…just…how you do it matters. They're not like us. Not smart enough to use discretion or be subtle. More concerned on what could happen if they manage to escape or say the wrong thing to the wrong people with that knowledge."
Despite her frustration, she couldn't help but smile at him knowingly.
"...and I think they're growing on you more than you want to admit if you're indulging them like this."
"I mean…you missed the part where I threatened Purple with big iron before, not shutting up." He stood, gesturing to the paused movie on TV, reaching into his vest pocket to look at his watch. Him and his eccentric fashion. "I mean…we're all stuck here. It takes too much energy to be eternally pissed at them."
He made his way over to the sofa, taking his seat once more and propping his feet up.
"Some of us have deeper wells of energy then others but you're right." Tak admitted on that front at she followed after him into the living room. "But how dare they interrupt your glowing idiot smart box time."
Her tone was anything but serious.
"You know I like westerns…you seen how I dress, and my taste in music."
"I couldn't tell." She dryly answered in sarcasm. "You're obsessed…it's equally endearing as it is concerning."
He shot her a glance over his shoulder, "Can you blame me? I think this stuff is fashionable. Haven't seen you make one complaint, at least while we're on the ranch."
"You can't embarrass either of us out here with your "fashionable" attire…" She left to hang, mentally mulling over the words before walking around the corner of the couch to find a seat at the other end.
"…I will say it suits you well at least. A…good look for you."
He cracked a faint smile, starting up the movie once more. He draped one arm over the back of the couch, leaving an open invitation for her without saying a word.
Tak's only reaction to this unspoken gesture was a single, questioning brow arched before turning her violet gaze back to the screen. An excuse to take her attention away from him as she hadn't the vaguest clue to what was taking place in the movie. A pantomime of the same things Kazak did around the ranch, played up for entertainment in dramatic fashion.
"I don't think you ever said why specifically this era of dress or culture. Why it interests you, that is…great deal of variety throughout human history and cultures…and you pick this. Why?"
The movie picked up on the scene of a double cross at the river. He figured Tak would've made her way over to him on the couch. A few moments in thought before a sigh followed, causing him to pause it once more.
"I'm a loner, Tak. Ever since our first round at Praxxus, after I got the chance to go solo with the new experimental unit of Scout Snipers I helped build. You know I don't really like social events, large gatherings…and then ever since I found out about all this, I just yearned for freedom. I wanted to be…me, not some cog in a wider machine. The Old West as it got termed in this country…gave you an opportunity to do just that. Leave the familiarity and comfort of the more populated cities, come out to raw land, make or break. You, your skills, your gun, your horse, and sheer determination. Rancher, outlaw, homesteader, what have you…it's appealing to a guy like me."
She listened intently as he spoke at-length. He wasn't much for conversation beyond single sentences most of the time. This was uncommon. Even more rare was the…passion and earnest happiness he emanated speaking of the freedom of opportunity allotted through this way of life long since passed that he gravitated towards.
"That's…". Tak began, blinking in surprise. "…surprisingly deep and profound coming from you."
She paused, looking at him with a resisted smirk. "Here I was led to believe you just wanted to wear funny hats and sharp jewelry on your boots."
"The spurs serve a real role in riding," he shook his head, a faint smile on his face. "I like the clothes but…really there is more to it than that. I'm genuinely happy here for the first time in…forever, really."
Hearing the authenticity in his claims brought a thin smile to her face. She said nothing, only adjusting her posture on the couch to tuck her legs beneath her and get comfortable. Kazak himself pressed the play button once more.
As the duration of the movie progressed, the distance between her and Kazak shrunk bit-by-bit with each subtle change to alleviate strains or prevent restlessness becoming a numb extremity. Finally, she very intentionally unfolded her legs to shift posture once more. This time, however, she leaned towards Kazak. Doing so purposely placed her well against him, side-by-side.
He didn't mind it…not from her, not this time. Much as he pushed the others on the team away this was different. His arm draped over the back of the couch came down and around her. He remained mostly still until then, eyes fixed on the screen with occasional glances towards her throughout. Though now his open invitation from earlier was answered. Quiet companionship with someone of a similar mind to his own…something he wanted that he thought he would never have with the others.
His arm, while expected, surprised her. He hadn't been terribly touchy-feely in the slightest…but she also hadn't placed herself intentionally close to him, either. This was new territory broached for both of them. An unspoken, silent agreement of sorts. It simply felt…right. Good. Appropriate.
Nestling against Kazak, her head lowered to rest on his shoulder. Her arms lowered, laying atop Kazak's around her. A hand rests atop his. Her attention remained on the movie throughout, never deviating to the man. No reason to make a questioning spectacle of the obvious.
The final duel came and went, the credits rolling, and yet the embrace didn't end. They remained together, and Kazak was more than content with it. Just the two of them, no interruption…quite the difference from what little he picked up with other members of the team figuring this out for themselves. He ironically found his own way.
Vaukt and Zha would arrive back later, finding the two on the sofa sound asleep. As Vaukt went upstairs, Zha unfolded a blanket and draped it over the two and turned off the TV. Aside from some creaking upstairs for a time as Vaukt and Zha settled in for their own night, things were all quiet on the ranch.