Kaylin wrung her hands together. Feeling the scarred flesh of her right hand pressed tightly in the fingers of her left.
Somehow they had managed it. They had gotten the leaders of nearly every gang to go to a neutral spot between territories to talk. There were some who refused, and then there was one who was missing. The Eagles had been wiped out. Kaylin had to hold herself together, and try very hard not to think of Adolfo, especially not after she had used him to guilt trip Cee into agreeing with her.
The Mels had a new leader, a man named Kair that she knew fairly well, and was glad that this meant Tyke had a place to go back to. His aunt had lived through the past weeks and the in-fighting that had been caused by Jone's death.
Kaylin's eyes flickered up to the men and two women who had gathered around her. She saw it on all their faces except Cee's. Disbelief. She had told them her story, and not a single one believed her. She dropped her head again and thinned her lips, rubbing the marred flesh and trying hard to keep her tears in check.
"Aliens," someone spoke up finally, and she recognized the voice of Tiktik, leader of the FSA, "you got to be kidding me."
"Why would I lie to you?" Kaylin pleaded.
"You already lied to us about why you're here, this one's even less believable."
"Shut yo damn mouth!" spat Kair standing up to his full impressive height, "Kay here's done more for everyone than you've probably done for anyone."
"Sit down fresh shit."
"You mother-."
"Stop! Okay? Stop!" Kaylin only had to move a few feet to put an arm between Kair and Li, head of the Red Dragons. The two glowered embers at each other but finally Kair sat down and Kaylin move back to her seat, huffing.
"Why did you lie to us before then?"
Kaylin looked over at Lissa, the dark-skinned leader of the Keys gang. She frowned apologetically, "I didn't…," Kaylin inhaled and sighed, "I didn't want to admit that I had actually killed seven people. I was happier having everyone think that I was innocent."
She didn't like the looks everyone gave her. She bowed her head and shrunk into herself, wishing she was smaller, invisible. But she had to be here, this needed to be resolved. Jitar needed his ship back so that he could leave, and life on Neo-Australia could go back to whatever semblance of normalcy it ever had.
"So if you've lied to us in the past, how do we trust you now?"
Kaylin's chest twisted in a mix of guilt and outrage.
"Look, I saw it, okay?" Cee said pointedly at Tiktik, "she ain't lying."
"Like anyone's going to trust your word over hers honky."
The veins in Cee's neck swelled and the tendons became starkly obvious. His open hand closing into a tight fist.
Tiktik gave Cee just as skeptical of a look, if not more, that he gave to Kaylin, "then let all of us see it and then believe what the two of you are saying."
Kaylin shook her head.
"Why not!?"
"Because!" she snapped, "he came here because you all were fighting and he wanted to fight too! And I am sick and tired of people getting hurt just because someone thought it would be fun!"
"This thing is huge, okay?" Cee interjected, "two times bigger than you," he pointed at Kair, "and built like a roider. He was black and white, had huge claws and a mask and a gun on his back and a sword that was the size of me."
Kaylin saw the color drain out of Aron's face and she narrowed her eyes in confusion, looking at the Cazadore.
He caught her gaze and looked away a moment before speaking up, working his English past a thick accent.
"I believe them."
The others suddenly quieted and looked at the man as he shifted his weight on his seat, "a couple days ago, I think literally the night before last, a woman from the Eagles came running into our territory. She was pregnant and she was crying, saying a demon or something had swept through their streets and killed everyone with a curved sword. She said it spared her, and skinned the ones it had killed."
Kaylin really, really, didn't like how Aron was using the past tense to describe this woman, who was probably Sephie, as she was the only one she knew of who was pregnant in the Eagles gang.
"Where is she now?"
Aron's pale face became red and he looked away again. Kaylin held her breath as he swallowed uncomfortably, "we still have her," he finally admitted, embarrassed, "we thought of killing her for being crazy but… I decided that she should give birth first. Killing a child who hasn't been born yet… I felt it was wrong," Aron squared his shoulders and looked pointedly at the others sitting around him, as if daring them to call him out on his decision.
Kaylin gave a sigh of relief, but then really thought on what he was saying, "Kair?" Kair looked over at Kaylin, the disbelief on his face now different from the last time, afraid of thinking that what was being said might actually be true, "is it safe for Tyke to go back to the Mels?"
Kair's lips closed and his brow hardened, "why?"
Kaylin looked at the ground and rubbed her hand again, "because the alien is living with me, and I want him out of danger."
"Why are you keeping a homicidal maniac in your house with a kid!?" Halen suddenly shouted from her seat, where she had been quiet ever since they pulled her away from the SRXXII gang from the north.
Kaylin gnashed her teeth and stood suddenly, "don't you," she began thinking for a moment of restraining herself but the rest burst out of her uncontrolled, "dare pull your hypocritical shit on me! You! All of you! Have been killing each other for years! For decades! Long before I was even born with some of you! You have murdered each other and thought nothing more than 'good riddance!' Never once have any of you ever stopped to think 'this is a human being I just killed! With a family! With friends! Who will be missed! Whose loved ones will want revenge!' And you all have been accusing each other of being murderers and just ignoring the fact that you are too!
"And I have welcomed each and every one of you into my home! I have healed the wounds you've inflicted on each other! And I have wept every time someone else had to be buried!" Kaylin shut her mouth tight, chin wrinkling, sniffing in a deep breath and glaring at the faces of the gangs critically, she only now felt the hot tears going down her burning cheeks, her hands balled into fists at her sides, "never once have I turned you out when you needed me, no matter what atrocities you've committed, and now this creature, this alien, needs my help. Again. And I will give it. And I needed your help to do it. But if you're all going to condemn me for it then I will do it myself. Kair!"
The large man almost flinched, looking straight at her reddening eyes, "is it safe for Tyke to go home or not!?"
"Yeah yeah, I'll—."
"No, I'll drop him off. We're done here, thank you all for coming," Kaylin turned on her heel, turning and walking away. As the anger drained swiftly out of her it left the pain, and her shoulders shook with sobs that she tried to hold in. To have some scrap of dignity that she could cling to as she walked away from everyone.
She closed her eyes against the burning and felt her shoulder hit a tree. She stumbled a bit and fell to her knees. Choking on a sob and sniffling. She couldn't believe what she had just said. These people would never look at her the same again. They wouldn't trust her like they used to. They wouldn't go to her now even if they needed her. They were only a few yards behind her, but she felt so very isolated suddenly, like never before when she was living in a hut miles away from any of them.
"Look, everyone!" yelled Cee over the angry chatter that had stated. Kaylin looked over her shoulder, "shut the fuck up! Listen, this thing is stuck on the planet, and it's mean. This guy says that he wiped out the whole Eagles gang, what hell is really going to stop it if it gets bored and decides to do it again?"
Cee licked his lips, uncomfortable with what he was saying, "now, like any of you," I would not be sad one fucking bit if this thing decided to go after your gang," he said tossing his hand at Aron's direction, "or yours," he said, pointing at Liam, leader of the Dabbits, "and especially yours," he looked at Kair, and the man glowered.
"But what if it goes after mine? What if it goes after the Skulls. 'Kay? I don't want to take that risk. Now you think," Cee pointed at Aron again, "'what if it goes after the Caz'?' Or 'what if it goes after the Mels?' Do either of you want to risk it? Do any of you want to risk it? If not, then we have to get it off the damn planet, okay? And then, and then, we can go back to killing each other ourselves, alright?"
Kaylin sniffed and turned around sitting on her rump and looking at the gathered people, a few of whom had started to leave before Cee started talking. Now no one moved, and everyone was quiet for a bit. Then, a few turned, Li, who had only stopped to listen, kept going forward into the trees. Tiktik stood up, cursing under his breath and left. One by one she saw people leave, but once the sound of leaves rustling and the crunch of dead foliage died away, several remained. Liam, Kair, Lissa, Aron, Brut, leader of the 36, Poncy, leader of the Sandy Kings, and of course Cee.
That was less than half of what was gathered, but Kaylin was grateful for each one of them.
"Thank you," she gasped and stood, but she got some dirty looks from a few still present.
"We're not doing this for you," spat Poncy, "we're doing this for our people. You call us hypocrites, but you're no better than any of us. With seven kills under your belt, maybe you should think of joining someone?"
Kaylin sucked in a breath and felt new tears rolling from her eyes.
"That's enough. We'll meet here tomorrow to discuss what we're going to do, okay?"
Cee got some disgruntled agreements and everyone stood and started going their separate ways. Cee came towards Kaylin, but she only heard the noise he was making and his hand on her shoulder. She watched as silent tears fell onto the leaves at her feet.
"Come on Kay, let's get you home."
Kaylin kept her head down and was quiet the entire way home. She sniffed and constantly wiped her eyes, getting little comfort and warmth from Cee's arm wrapped around her shoulder. When Cee's guiding arm suddenly became a restraining one Kaylin looked up in a panic. Was Cee just as upset as everyone else? Was he going to kill her now? But his gaze was ahead. Kaylin turned her head and her eyes widened. Her pale skin reflected the orange of fire, and the dull roar of it reached her ears.
Kaylin screamed in agony and turned to run towards it but was held back by Cee. She cried out Tyke's name, wrestling with the man who held her, slipping out of his grip and rushing through the trees. She continued to call for the child, wondering where he was, wondering what had happened.
As she burst into her little clearing she saw a stark mass of black creating a shadow on the ground. A metallic pill-bug looking thing open at its side, and it was bent over the unmoving body of a child.
"Tyke!" she screamed, and Jitar gave her only a sideways glance before going back to work. Kaylin dropped down by Tyke but was pushed away by the alien with a growl, taking some glowing blue gel and pressing it against open wounds in Tyke's chest.
"What happened!?" She screamed at Jitar as Cee came up behind her, gun pointed at the alien, "Jitar what happened!?"
The alien turned its mask towards the two of them and growled deep in his chest.