Forcibly United
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Rock's Little Sister
Chapter 6
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Balalaika stared at the closed eyes of the girl.
Her mind raced to gloss over the incongruities. Her heart, such as it was, told her that what she was seeing was just not possible. Yet despite all of this, both Boris and Gretel had taken bullets which were meant to end her life.
Balalaika fought back a bitter sob, feeling Gretel's faint pulse underneath one hand. A pulse she knew her former compatriot would not mirror.
Boris was not merely sleeping or unconscious... He was dead.
These bastards had killed him.
The Russian would deal with the girl later.
For now, she concentrated on the fools who would try to leave their master's room alive. They didn't live long. All but one tried to break free of the room, and all who tried, died, shot before they'd run a step or two.
She heard the last man whimpering in fear as he threw his gun out into the hallway. She strolled up to the pistol, noting the etching in the barrel and the overall exquisite design of the gun. The sobbing man, whether through luck or not, had a very good taste in weapons, even if he'd chosen to profane it with decorative markings.
The Russian teen entered the room and savagely broke his neck, her only thought on the tall man in the hallway who'd died in her service.
Boris.
She was the leader of Hotel Moscow.
She would not cry.
He was a cog in the machine. Easily replaced. Familiar, no doubt, but the Russian wouldn't presume to put her entire operation at risk because of one man.
The Russian woman exited the room. The rest of the bastards attacking the Lagoon Company would know her wrath. The entirety of Hotel Moscow would be brought to bear for this transgression.
"Big brother would... hate to... lose... you..." A phantom voice whispered.
The tall Russian paused. The girl who lay dying had helped not just kill, but torture two of her men. She had also taken two bullets meant for the Russian just because the Romanian thought Rock would feel sad at her loss.
No.
Not "the Romanian".
Gretel had thrown herself in the path of an assualt rifle to save Balalaika's life, just as Boris had... For no other reason than the thought of saving her life.
Balalaika owed her life to the girl.
Damn.
To her credit, the Russian teen only paused for a moment. She dragged the bleeding girl to the doorway to the Lagoon Company office, savagely kicking it open and shoving a desk braced against the door five feet into the room.
Thankfully, Dutch paused for a fraction of a second, his finger not tightening on the pistol aimed at her forehead.
"I'll need a medkit," Balalaika said, lifting the injured girl gently onto the couch at the center of the room. Her glare dared anyone to say anything about the wetness trailing down her cheeks. She accepted a white metal box with a latch from Rock, his own eyes tearing up as he stared at his adoptive sister. Decades of ruthlessly pushing aside her emotions to get a job done allowed her to ignore the young man's obvious distress. "We'll discuss this later, Rock. Close that door. Now."
Rock hurried to the door, once more pressing the desk into place.
"That's not enough!" Balalaika informed him sternly as Dutch fired several rounds out of the window. "If I broke through that barricade, so can they! Grab that couch, stuff it against the door, and sit on it if you're not going to fight, Rock!"
The boy nodded as Balalaika began to do her best to save her former enemy's life. It wasn't the first time her fingers had been covered with the blood of someone to whom she owed her life, though, as with every time it happened, she prayed it would be her last.
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Revy could have been having a better time.
She could have been snuggling up to Ro-... someone cute, drinking a nice tall glass of rum and be not worried about the concept of gunfire intersecting with her asshole. She could have been sleeping off her impending hangover in her nice, clean bed. She could have even possibly still remained at the bar, drinking the newly-young Benny under the table.
Of course, it was all that pigtailed prick's fault. He had to go and provoke her. So of course she'd had to chase him. Then he'd had the audacity to crash there HER office window.
Things had gotten annoying about then.
The two-dozen men who pulled up and joined her in pouring fire into the Lagoon Company offices didn't help. Clearly they hadn't been after Ranma as well, which just meant they were more work for her to clean up.
She soon used the lack of attention on her to break a window across the street, taking cover against the sturdy bookshelves under the display window in Chaosin's Paperback's.
"Hey, you pigtailed bastard!" Revy called out during a lull in the gunshots. She grinned at the dawning comprehension on the enemies staring at her position. "We've got a truce until tomorrow morning!"
"Deal, tomboy!" Ranma agreed.
Revy let it go, instead choosing to focus her anger on the men on street level. Four men died as Revy pointed the guns in their general direction, opting to use a flurry of bullets instead of accurate aim to kill them. Three men on the opposite side of the battlefield fell as a bright blue flash of light darted from the second story window, blasting apart the car they were taking cover behind and throwing them violently across the street.
Revy noticed that three more men were picked off as they attempted to aim at her, thanks to Dutch's rather impressive revolver. He might have been using an old-as-fuck man gun, but he made the damned thing seem like a habit instead of being a poseur.
She fired a flury of shots at two men who broke cover as they tried to run towards the stairwell leading up to her office, and grinned at the way they spun and died.
By her count, there were only three men left.
Her kill count was ruined as Ryouga's unconscious body was hurled towards the remaining trio, knocking one out outright and shielding Ranma from their view as he hurled himself from the window. Revy admitted to herself that maybe he was impressive with that kung fu of his as she watched him disassemble the remaining two men.
Both combatants shared a grin, before turning their attention inside.
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Rock's concern for his little sister wasn't his sole focus.
At times, he damned his attention to detail. It was that same attention to detail which had lead him to being caught up with the Lagoon Company in the first place. That attention to detail also clued him in to the Church of Violence's gun and drug trading, which left him in a very precarious position.
No, his concern at the moment was the frantically working blond teen who was performing first aid on the fragile Romanian girl with two bullet holes in her right shoulder. The silent tears which ran down her eyes, which told more than she dared to give, told a whole different story.
When Ranma and Revy declared the all clear, Rock dared to unblock the doorway and look out into the hallway. The sight that greeted him dropped him to his knees. Boris lay in an expanding pool of his own blood, his chest neither rising nor falling.
The shock the Japanese boy was feeling had time to thoroughly explore the "what-ifs" of his own death versus Boris's death when a hand gentle moved him aside. Rock looked up to see Dutch gazing out into the blood-soaked corridor.
"Well, that's a complication," the American noted, scratching his head. He glanced down the short hallway which lead to the main room of the office, indicating Balalaika's first aid with a nod of his head. "You got any idea about why she's suddenly Gretel's best friend?"
For a moment, Rock was speechless. Nothing came to mind... Until he remembered her teasing them both. The thought was ludicrous, but still... Why else would his adopted little sister hurl herself in front of bullets aimed at the woman most likely to kill her?
He approached the blond slowly as she finished securing the last of the bandages she was working with. She knelt back and sighed with a shuddering sob, observing the girl with a mixed look of fondness and hatred.
Rock moved closer.
"Balalaika... What happened?" Rock asked timidly, kneeling near the young Russian while placing a hand on her shoulder. He thought when he placed his hand on her shoulder, he was prepared for anything.
He was prepared for her hatred. She could easily hate him... Gretel had killed two of her men. Not only killed them, but done so in a horribly graphic fashion. He was prepared to see nothing but hate in the Russian teen's eyes.
He was prepared for denial. Boris had been a constant in her life from the time she had joined the Russian-Afghan conflict. He had been the one to command her when she arrived and see her flourish into the indomitable military mind she was this day. It was only natural for her to reject the thought of him laying dead in the corridor.
He was not prepared for what she did. By everything he knew, Balalaika was a strong woman. Stronger than anyone he knew. She simply was not capable of breaking down in a sobbing heap like she was.
Rock pulled her into a tight hug, trying his best not to feel awkward about the whole thing.
By the expressions his coworkers held as they stared at the Russian desperately clutching him, he knew that awkward was something he was going to be very familiar with very soon.
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"Ain't that cute," Revy snorted, crossing her arms at the doorway as she watched her 'big sis' clutch Rock like a life preserver.
"Wait a sec... Aren't you- I mean, aren't you both-" Ranma was cut off as Revy raised a gun towards the pigtailed boy.
"Ranma. Ranmmaaa...." Revy drew out, sliding up to him with a coy smile. Ranma glared at the girl with well-placed suspicion. "Don't you know not to ask questions to women skirting the edge of rage like that? You just make yourself a target."
The pigtailed martial artist had time to dart across the room and grab Ryouga, ducking under a flurry of shots from Revy's new pistols.
"Crazy bitch, I was helping you!" Ranma swore, grabbing a chimney across the way and ducking behind it as a series of shots destroyed the top half.
"What's that? I surrender, Revy-sama?" Revy called, grinning. "I still haven't reloaded yet, pansy-ass! You've gotta avoid my shots until then!"
"Crazy tomboy!" Ranma growled, leaping away.
Revy glanced after the retreating boy, her smile fading after a moment as Balalaika's sobs re-entered her perception.
Big sis wasn't supposed to cry. That wasn't why Revy idolized her.
Yet even the gunslinging thug couldn't deny that the Russian teen had good cause.
She holstered her gun and nodded to Rock, who nodded in turn.
She wasn't good at all this touchy-feely shit, but he knew she was there for him if he needed her. Just like always.
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Author's Notes:
Another two chapters, at most, and then we go back to comedy with Ranma, Ryouga, and Eda making a mess of some wacky criminals.
Apologies for the mood whiplash... but I needed to tackle the Gretel/Balalaika angle sooner or later. I opted for sooner, since I've got another slightly-more-serious-than-normal arc planned soon. Though it won't touch on the angst and GrimDark of this arc.
Nothin' will, to be honest. In fact, the lightly comedic tone of the gunfight was a bit of a penance for me. That serious stuff will happen next chapter or two, and then it'll stay tucked away for fifteen thousand words or so. Promise.
No promises about when I'll get to the next chapter. I've never played Jade Empire, and I just downloaded it off of Xbox Live.