Chapter XV: Liberating Libertys

AN:

Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

This one felt a little... anticlimactic? I tried to write an ending with more oomph, but nothing felt right.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

Ebenezar's abrupt growl woke us all. "She's not here."

I blinked blearily over at him, stood firm and scowling. Even my sluggish brain could recognise it wasn't getting any more sleep today, so I shimmied out of my bedroll and stumbled to my feet. My nightmares, mercifully, stayed in sleep. "What?" Ebenezar eyed me. "Sorry. What do you mean, Sir?" I amended.

"Matty. She's not here. There's a problem."

"Not necessarily, Mr Ebenezar," remarked Andrew. He tapped his watch. "There's still time before she said to be concerned for her."

"Maybe on her schedule. But we have a more demanding timetable." He stood straighter. "We're going to go find her. Now."

"Right you are." He paused. "No breakfast first?"

Ebenezar's look was scathing.

"Right." Andrew sagged. "Off we go then."

"She was supposed to be here?" We looked over the untouched, unhindered building. It stood a little ways apart from everything else, in the middle of a dusty and slightly overgrown yard. "There doesn't seem to be any sign of conflict."

"She isn't the type to burn the building down, Mr Ebenezar. No matter the quarrel she had with the people in it." Andrew responded.

Ebenezar snorted. I think that said enough.

After a moment of silence, I asked, "Spread out, search for clues?"

Ebenezar nodded. His face spread into a broad grin. "The old standby."

We sneaked our way up to the building and broke in. Two steps in, it was immediately obvious. This place had been cleared out. Luccio sighed and stood, said exactly that. "Same routine as before. Check around for anything you can find."

Ebenezar and I went upstairs, the Luccio and Caoimhe took the downstairs. And, I later found out, the basement. Ten minutes later, we regrouped on the main floor.

Ebenezar went first. He held up a purple crystal. It was a little darker than his stole and a little larger than his fist. "I found this under a wood pile upstairs. It's Matty's."

"What is it?" Caoimhe frowned curiously at it.

"Focus crystal. Helps with meditation." Ebenezar tossed it to Luccio, who caught it easily. "Anyone else get anything?"

Luccio herself answered. She put something away in a belt pouch I hadn't noticed before. "Nothing conclusive. Scan spells showed people in here. One person entered later, joining the rest for a while before they all left together. I couldn't identify any of the imprints, but I would bet Councillor Liberty was one of them. Too much power in these imprints for any minor talents."

I frowned. "Did she get captured? That can't be right. She's fucking Senior Council. You don't get to that point by collecting bottlecaps. Maybe she retreated? Didn't want to hurt them too badly?" I looked over to Ebenezar. His expression was as puzzled as mine, big bushy brows bunched together.

"Or maybe they had something on her." Luccio pointed out. "Being Senior Council doesn't mean you can't get outmanoeuvred."

Caoimhe sighed. "Well, this has been thoroughly unhelpful. We're just gonna keep hunting these guys 'til we find a clue to where she is?

"Or we could head back to our safehouse and just wait for her to come back?" I suggested. It was rapidly beginning to seem like a better option. Bunker up and wait for some developments. Otherwise we're just going to keep chasing shadows. And being chased by shadows.

Caoimhe snorted. "Better the unhelpful hunt than lockin' ourselves in that box and becoming the hunted. That Denisek guy isn't going to just give up because we've gone to ground."

I turned to her, crossed my arms. "And staying out here, leaving us vulnerable to attack from every direction, is any better an idea?"

"Hey-" Caoimhe turned to retort, but was cut off by a sudden yell.

"Children!" We all turned to look at Ebenezar. "Focus on the goal, you two. We need to get Matty back. To do that, we need to fight this gang of hers. So, let's go find out more about them. If we can find a good point to get involved, we can try it. If not, we'll see about waiting. Understood?"

"Understood." We chorused.

"Right." He turned to Andrew. "Is there anywhere you'd recommend we start?"

The man took a moment, clearly overwhelmed. His eyes were wide and it was a few seconds before he shook his head and started to refocus. "Um, right. Yes. The bar I heard about you in - Funky Thrones. Some of the gang members you... encountered retreated there, like I said. Maybe some of them are still around there?"

I looked to Luccio. She pondered for a second, then gave a nod. "It's as good a lead as any."

The 'bar' turned out to be more of a club. We could hear the music inside from half a block away. Lurid pink and purple lighting emblazoned the outside, and there was a chunky, bored bouncer manning the door. The door was stained red and covered with gold embellishments. The bouncer appeared to be reading Dostoyevsky.

He didn't even look up from his book as we walked over, just knocked on the door with his knuckles - a three-fold thunk-thunk-thunk. The door swung open and we were granted entrance.

I could feel the music pounding in my bones as we walked the small corridor inside. There was nobody around, but the walls were covered in pictures of random people, none of whom I recognised. "Nice place." I muttered.

Nobody heard me. Music was loud, remember?

We finally walked out into the main club space and found it to be a dark, greying room, frayed... everything all over. I took a few glances around. There were maybe thirty people in here. Most on the dance floor. Two bartenders were sitting, bored, behind the bar. One of them had a small book in their hands and a pencil.

The others quickly spread out. Luccio and Ebenezar took the people around the edges, while Caoimhe went straight for the dance floor. Me? I just found the darkest corner and settled in to watch.

It was maybe twenty minutes before I picked up on something. The bartender, the one with the book. He'd stopped writing, but hadn't looked up from the book. Or at least, he hadn't raised his head. His eyes were definitely following Ebenezar, and they were wide open.

As Ebenezar strolled over and struck up a conversation with the other bartender, book guy put down his book, stood, and started to quietly walk towards one of the employee exits behind the bar. I left my corner and went after him.

He started to hurry as soon as he broke sight of the doors. Not running, just very blatantly rushing. He took a few corridors and then pushed through a fire door. I followed him out into an alley. He took a few steps, then put a hand on the wall and leaned down, breathing deeply. It was a familiar gesture - he was trying to slow his heart rate. He was panicking.

Time to put some pressure on. I stepped out of the shadow. "Hello there."

He nearly jumped a foot in shock. His eyes were fully blown wide and his face was open in panic. It only got worse when he recognised me. "S-sorry. I'm on my break," He tried. "I can't help-"

I muttered a word and ice began to slowly crawl up my arms, little cooling wisps of steam emanating off me as I stepped towards him. He began to back off, further and further, until his back hit wall. He was mine.

I leaned in. "Now. I would like to ask you some questions. The first law means I can't kill you." Not that it really seemed to apply much, these days. Also, not that that was the full law. But he didn't have to know that. I locked eyes with him. "But I can make things very, very unpleasant. Have you ever felt flesh melt? It's quite an interesting experience."

He gulped, looked away down the alley. "There's no escape for you, my friend." His eyes widened as he spotted something behind me. I heard familiar footsteps. Good. The others had noticed me leaving. "You're part of the gang, aren't you?"

He started to shake his head, but at a look, he quickly started nodding. "Excellent." I threw him a bone. "That's good. That means you can be useful to us. We're looking for our friend, see, and she seems to have been... encountering your friends. Do you know who I'm talking about?"

Another nod. "The Council Woman. L-Liberty?"

"That's the one."

I was about to continue when Luccio and Ebenezar both stepped in, him putting a hand on my shoulder. I stood, and he gestured me to move. The two of them leaned in. Luccio's hand was settled on the hilt of her sword. Ebenezar had that staff.

I didn't hear what they said to him, but it worked. A few minutes later, he was singing like a canary. "Okay, okay! I wasn't supposed to see, but I followed my supplier this one time - he gives me a really great deal on the stuff and I wanted to know who he was getting it from. I found their base. It's big." He pointed us to an address. We let him live, with a warning, then left for the base.

"Well. That place is... big."

It was indeed big. It was three floors in some places, and I'm pretty sure it had been a school in a previous life. There was a gym-looking structure at one edge of it, and a vast sprawl of corridors and classrooms across the rest of it.

The outside seemed to be empty. We crept across the empty parking lot and up a fire-escape ladder onto a first-floor roof. Ebenezar and Luccio gathered us all against one wall. "Ready?" He asked. I nodded. When he was satisfied, he turned to the wall and waved his staff. A glob of acid spat out from it and hit the wall. It began to slide down it, spreading as it went until it had melted a person-wide doorway through the wall.

Huh. Neat trick.

We stepped through the new door and found ourselves in an upstairs corridor. I think I was right about my school suspicion - there were still torn posters all over the walls. We were at the end of a corridor, three doors to rooms behind us and a path stretching off ahead of us with two turns off before it flipped left at the far end.

This second floor area seemed clear. We walked through more than a few empty rooms, some apparent gang-dormitory spaces (the dozens of camp-beds were a dead giveaway), and rooms just full of whatever random crap the gang had that they didn't bother to throw out.

We hit an open stairway and snuck our way down. The gym doors were slightly open, and we pushed our way in. The room was filled with tables and tables of bottles and large shipping containers. I walked over and picked one up. "What the hell is this stuff?"

"Some sort of potion." We all whirled. A wall in one of the containers was lightly translucent, hard to see when you weren't looking right at it. A figure, blurred, stood on the other side. "I think it's a narcotic." A shrug.

"Thanks." I answered.

"Anytime!" The person said brightly.

"So, uh... who are you?" I asked as the others came over to my side.

"I'm Alicia."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Max, this is Ebenezar, Luccio, and Caoimhe." I gestured to each of our party in turn.

She beamed. "It's nice to meet you too! It's been very quiet, since the big stormy thundery time a little while back."

"Big stormy thundery time?"

"Yep. Everything shook, things got real loud, and I'm pretty sure part of this floor burned down. It got quite hot!"

We all blinked at her.

Abruptly, Ebenezar tapped his staff against the glowing wall. It shivered for a few seconds, then shattered like glass - though it vanished before hitting anything. Alicia immediately perked up. "Oh, are you trying to get me out? Thanks! It's not just the forcefield though. There's a few things that I saw them do before they let me out - I can run through them for you, if you like?"

"That would be helpful, thank you." Luccio answered, and she and Ebenezar walked over to the doorway.

I leaned back to watch, when Weatherwax's voice oozed into my head. "There is a cabinet in the corner there. Can you go and check it? I believe the contents may be of use to us." With a shrug, I wandered over and checked the cabinet. It was full to bursting with random shit. "The leather pouch." She directed. Another mental shrug: I reached in and picked up the pouch, testing its weight. I quickly stowed it in one of my pockets, to the approval of Weatherwax, and turned back to the Great Escape Group just in time to see them break whatever last seal was keeping this woman inside.

Alicia was... wow. She was striking. High, sharp cheekbones and a strong jaw were only the tip of the iceberg. Those eyes were just... Damn. I shook my head. Not the time, Max. I walked back over just in time to catch the tail end of the plan. "-set all these on fire, the explosion should cause most of the damage. Open up the gas in the basement and the old labs and that should cover the cause for any investigators."

Luccio and Alicia were both nodding. I couldn't see Caoimhe anywhere. "That's a Dresden Plan, sir. I'm in."

Ebenezar met my eye and grinned.

"I can't believe we still couldn't find her. Or that she hasn't turned up yet."

"It is a bit odd, yes." Andrew mused. "I was half expecting her to be in the base somewhere."

"I was, for a while." Another whirl. This was getting a little ridiculous. Liberty stood by one of the smaller fires, warming her hands against it. She had looked up at our entry and was now watching us. "But upon finding out the size of the gang presence, I retreated to plan a new assault - I hadn't found any solution that did not risk Alicia's life." A pause. Her voice turned wry. "Congratulations on beating me to it."

"Thanks, Matty. We couldn't let those people continue what they were doing."

"Indeed. And you rescued Alicia. I'm grateful. Them finding her was a surprise - my home is heavily protected and my family carries protections wherever they go." Another pause. A small smile. "The gang won't be able to hurt anyone else for a very long time. They'll struggle to build any meaningful supply up again without those resources. You've crippled them for now."

"Good. Because we need your help. We're gathering everyone up and heading back to Edinburgh."

"Good." She echoed. "It's about time. I'll gather my things and meet you at the Roosevelt Island Way. Be careful if you plan to break back in to the Parking Lot. There are several loud alarms." Liberty walked over to Andrew and they had a hushed conversation I couldn't hear. After a moment, she placed a hand on his shoulder, nodded, then walked out of the Sanctuary.

Ebenezar walked over to the spot Matty had stood in just a moment before. He stuck out a hand. "Thanks for your help, Andrew. Good working with you."