[SEQUEL TO GUN FOR HIRE]
Chapter 18: When Paranoia Kills
Warning - insinuated character death

Leo didn't understand what in the fucking world was supposed to happen anymore. First he found out that he was supposed to guard Piper, but apparently that would be a waste of whatever 'talent' or power or whatever he was supposed to have - so then he was supposed to sneak, or fight, or who knew what with some sort of mutant.

Now he was sitting on a couch, watching Adam preen himself in the mirror.

Worst of all, Leo still didn't get a voice. He looked down, numb as he wiggled his metal fingers; after everything that happened to him so far, not getting a voice was something he now expected and resigned to. That was fine. He still had two working middle fingers to communicate, and hopefully he would get his revolvers back to handle the rest. It was a shame he wouldn't put them to the test on Adam's corpse.

What was with this sitting and waiting though? There was no keeping up with this man or trying to figure out what fucking nightmare he'd bring down upon Leo next - and the more Leo tested his boundaries as to what he could get away with, the more he wondered why he was allowed as much as he could.

Adam had to have wanted him to. The fucked up scientist was the definition of a control freak, so there was something in this for him.

Ugh... Thinking and putting the pieces together was never Leo's strong suit. That was Luki's.

Pangs gripped Leo and his gaze panned to the floor, growing distant as he lost himself in his memories. It was his only solace left, the only way to retain his sanity and what little was left of him, to make sure the Institute didn't take that and win another robot. Maybe that's why he was forced to follow Adam around everywhere, to break his soul and mend his will the way they wanted to, to ensure total control and an obedient monster. Leo looked like a monster now.

What was he thinking? He condemned himself to this the moment sick rage got the best of him. Now he wanted nothing more than to apologize to Piper, but he didn't expect her to accept it or forgive him, anyways. Would Luki? He always prayed and preached about that kind of stuff; he'd give Leo a straight and honest answer about this kind of stuff. Leo couldn't even say anything though, and he couldn't write it - not if everyone was giving him strange looks for trying.

That mother seemed to figure it out, though. Garnet... Such a pretty name, and a pretty woman, and he was pretty much screwed after figuring out who she was related to. The only man he knew that was head over heels for the 'reporter' and 'barbarian of a woman' was the Sarge. That mother fucker had it all.

Why do the assholes always win?

Leo's gaze snapped up when Adam cheerfully whistled a tune in front of the mirror, grooming incessantly as he licked his fingertips to fix one tiny stubborn piece of hair. It may have been petty, but Leo burned holes in that little hair and prayed it would continue to give Adam absolute hell. It seemed to have, with it not falling into place the way the freak wanted it to. Leo smirked when, in a fit of frustration, it was snipped away; oh what he'd give to have that frustration himself. He ran his real hand along his buzzed head, wishing the stubble grazing his palm would grow faster - and hide the scars.

No more pompadour ever, if he wanted to cover his face. And he'd need sunglasses to block his eyes. He didn't know what he'd do about his arm yet, and - why was this his biggest concern right now, anyways? It's not like he was going back to civilization any time soon. He was trapped here.

"You look sad," Adam hummed, and his perky steps honestly made Leo sick to his stomach. He wanted to tear the scientist's legs out from his ass. The couch dipped, and Adam clasped his hands as he sandwiched them between his thighs, leaning forward to get a good look at Leo's face. "Are you upset that we're not going to the party?"

Seriously? How out of touch with fucking reality was this guy? That he still seemed to believe his company was a delight - even with literally every person sassing him, even other scientists - was bewildering and frightening at the same time.

All Leo could do was shrug and avoid looking into Adam's eyes, because what the hell else was he supposed to do? He didn't want to be punished again and have coursers hold him down, though, especially when he couldn't scream anymore. Goosebumps broke out in a repulsive shiver when Adam patted his knee. "Oh, I'm sorry, 3-0." He had a name, and it wasn't numbers. That the scientist mocked him by making it rhyme with his name deserved to get a finger ripped out the socket for that alone. "It's for your own good, though. That reporter and the man you know as the sergeant are there - so do you still want to go?"

Leo froze. He didn't know how to react to convince the scientist not to torment him and be encouraged to drag him to the party after all. He tapped his wrist incessantly, desperate to move on to something else. Adam chuckled and got up, folding the cuffs of his dress shirt. Why was he wearing a tuxedo if they weren't going? This had to be another mind game, where Adam was going to convince him they weren't, and then drag him anyways.

"When I get the grant and the resources to open my division, I'll finally be able to poke around in your brain." Hadn't he already? What else could explain the reason why Leo wasn't able to strike out and strangle this man? "Then I can fix your dyslexia - it should just be a matter of rewiring how information is processed."

God, if there was a fucking god - and maybe there was for Leo to be suffering to this degree - please don't give this freak the means to do that.

"Here's the panel. Hook it up to yourself, I'll be right back." Adam left and went down the hallway to the bathroom, leaving Leo to struggle as he tried to figure out how to make the 'flap' pop open on his wrist. He remembered where the scientist pressed, but he couldn't feel pressure, and so experimented on hard and light touches.

Nothing worked.

Frustration ignited to life and burned in his throat - it was faster and faster to get upset, and he had no outlet. He couldn't scream. He couldn't cry. He snapped up into standing and his arm reeled back, throwing the panel at the wall. It shattered beautifully, pieces flying. Adam was back in the room in seconds, fixing those fucking stupid cuffs. His hair - usually messily spiked - was now slicked back. The freak looked like a bonafide villain straight out from the comic books that Luki used to read.

"Ah... I should have expected that from you." Adam sighed as he went over, pushing the pieces against the wall with his foot. He frowned at Leo. "I can't fix stupidity, you know."

Leo grabbed the closest thing - some sort of... L shaped device - to throw at the scientist, but his own flesh and blood arm locked down and wouldn't let him. What the hell was stopping him from hurting Adam? The freak calmly strode to him, and Leo was just waiting for coursers to flood in the room. Instead the device was plucked from his fingers and returned to the pristine coffee table.

"If you continue to exhibit this childish behavior then you will never get your voice back, not until I no longer have reason to believe that you would berate me with expletives."

Well deserved expletives.

"There's another suit in the bedroom. Do clean yourself up. We must be presentable before we return to Ms. Butler."

Return... For what? Well, knowing this freak, he was probably running another fucked up experiment to mess with her head - maybe even her kid's head - too.

And Leo wasn't going to let him succeed.

x - x - x

"Wait." Sarah's arm came across to block Piper from sneaking past, and the soldier stole a quick peek around the corner. "I think I see a camera. Something's moving, anyways."

"What if it's a turret?"

"It's not."

Well. That was some certainty, considering they had no clue about this place or the extent of the Institute's technology. Piper bit her tongue before she sarcastically remarked as such, not wanting to earn the icy stare and the ire of the only ally she had left. She leaned forward to try and get a look herself, but Sarah's arm nudged her right back.

"Don't," Sarah hissed, and Piper earned the icy stare anyways. "I'm holding you back for a reason. Follow my lead or go back to the party."

"Who elected you to be the leader?"

"Me, because I'm the best suited of us to lead right now." Sarah didn't sound arrogant about it - even though the statement screamed it - but said it as if it was fact. Just who was this woman, really? Piper frowned and bit her tongue ever harder in the name of keeping peace, set a little at ease when Sarah turned and leaned against the wall, looking up at the ceiling in thought. "It can't be a turret because this used to be a wing, until they closed it off for whatever reason. If a curious scientist wandered in here and defenses were active, killing him or her, then what would the Institute be able to say once news spread?"

"They could clean it up and make a synth in that scientist's stead. Who's to say they aren't going the same lengths to hide their own secrets from their own people?"

"There have to be ways to find out if you're a synth or human, and the Institute couldn't afford that. They'd effectively make themselves go extinct that way."

"Couldn't they? If they're replacing everyone on the surface, who's to say that's not their goal? Just create machines, who create machines, who create machines. Maybe their view on 'helping' humanity is to kill it, because it'll kill itself anyways, like the Great War."

"The scientists would riot if that was the case. Not all of them could be behind this."

"They don't have to know if they are or aren't. Leaders don't always make everything transparent to their followers." Case and point, with the gut feeling Piper had about Sarah. The soldier was definitely hiding something, and it went beyond the usual cold arms-length attitude. This woman operated out of wholesome interest and missions; there was someone that had to back her if she wanted to do anything with whatever she uncovered here.

Piper needed to find that out too, to make sure that what they unearthed wouldn't screw over the entire Commonwealth in the interest of the Brotherhood. There was no way Sarah's allegiance aligned with anybody else.

"Nobody questioned their work in that party..." Piper mused. "Every single one of them has put the Director on this pedestal and it's like a fricken cult. They're just blindly working, never thinking about the consequences because they're not exposed to those consequences. They eat whatever they're told." She glanced around and at the floor, brow furrowing in concentration. She rocked forward on her knees and swiped her finger beside one of their footsteps, then looked at it - it was caked in dust. "The doors weren't locked, but doesn't look like anybody else has been in here except us."

"So what could they be told about this place to stop them from coming in here?"

"Maybe... Maybe they just made this place useless? Or said it was. Why come into a place that serves no purpose and isn't functional?"

"Only one way to find out." Sarah peeked around the corner, then held out her hand at Piper. "Give me that bowtie that guy gave you."

Piper scowled. "That guy has a name, you know." Irritation jolted through her when the soldier shrugged dismissively, her eyes still on the camera. Piper searched the suit jacket's pockets and took out the bowtie, hesitantly handing it over. "What are you going to do?"

Instead of an answer, Sarah disappeared. The reporter bit back a groan, though her head lulled back and she closed her eyes as she whispered a calming mantra to herself. Every part of her buzzed - whether that was from anger or alcohol, or a mix of both, it was hard to say. She thought it was difficult to work with Garrett, but she had a feeling she was about to get a taste of someone far more stubborn and bossy than him.

Curiosity prodded her to check and see, and her cheeks flushed when she glanced around and watched as Sarah crept forward, pressed against the wall until she was underneath the camera. She stretched up high and held the bowtie against the glass part, poking Piper with a memory that invoked... Certain desires.

"To the bedroom, then. We can pretend to use my bowtie as a blindfold."

"Guess he's not going to be the only one blindfolded," she quipped under her breath, burning to tell him that when she saw him again - after thoroughly chewing him out over taking his own joke about strip teasing and turning it into reality. She locked it in her brain to never underestimate that man for being a literal man of his word. "Be careful what you wish for, I guess..."

Sarah waved her over, but pressed a finger to her mouth. Piper buttoned up the suit jacket - thank god it kept her warm, because it was freezing in here - and snuck along. She came up to the soldier and rose on her toes to try and see how they could secure the bowtie, until Sarah nudged her to keep going. The soldier carefully adjusted the camera to point more towards where they had just come, then fluttered the bowtie against the glass before she slipped down and slithered along the wall until she caught up with Piper, who arched her brow in a silent question.

"Move." Sarah mouthed, pushing Piper until they came to a bulkhead that appeared to be operated by the terminal mounted on the wall. The soldier dove right in, and Piper hovered over the shoulder to watch - until she earned that icy stare again.

"Why did you do that thing with the camera?" Piper inquired, ignoring the chill that skipped down her spine from the way the soldier looked at her. Maybe it was freezing in here because of Sarah, because the woman didn't have a single goosebump on her and her dress looked even skimpier than Piper's. She couldn't help but envy the muscle definition in the shoulders and arms though; even Sarah had thick and toned forearms.

Maybe when all of this was over, Piper could ask Garrett to take her up on that bridge he was talking about before.

Still no climbing though.

"To make whoever's watching think there was just a brief malfunction," the soldier finally answered. The terminal illuminated her face, her laser focus still unbroken. She was so rigid. Piper honestly prayed the Brotherhood would leave the Commonwealth as soon as they were done their business here, and hopefully that business didn't revolve around recruits. She didn't want her little sister to turn into this - a woman who's existence revolved around work and subterfuge rather than actually enjoying life and doing some real good.

"Is Luki okay?" Piper blurted, suppressing her grimace when Sarah's gaze snapped to her. "I-I don't need details... I'm just worried, because you seem really tense."

"This is how I always am," Sarah stated factually, then turned back to the terminal. "He's... Fine." A beat. "He better be. Leave it at that - I still don't trust you."

That raised red flags, but Piper knew she wasn't going to squeeze anything else out; it seemed this paranoia about whether or not they were synths was driving everyone nuts. She sighed when the bulkhead's gears creaked as they turned, opening slowly. Both women froze, though Sarah was the first to thaw and entered cautiously as they studied all the signs of a struggle. There was a trail of blood leading to the next bulkhead, and metal limbs strung about the floor.

"We're not the only ones here after all," Sarah murmured as she approached the... 'Corpse', if dead robots can even be called that. She wrapped the bowtie around her palm and plucked a cloth that hung on to a fallen shelf, picking up the synth's pistol with it. Piper didn't know why the need for cloths - unless, maybe Sarah was a germaphobe like Shaun? The reporter shrugged it off before curiosity had a chance to torment her about it, walking over to a second synth corpse to take it's gun. "Don't pick it up without covering your hands," Sarah snapped, "we can't take these out with us, so we can't risk leaving our fingerprints on it when we leave the guns behind."

"Fingerprints?" Piper glanced over with a confused look, studying the way the soldier held the gun before she tried to mimic it herself. She couldn't get a reliable grip though. "The recoil is going to knock this gun right out my hands, and how the heck am I supposed to reload it?"

"You won't." Sarah came over and kicked the gun well away from the reporter, who struggled not to roll her eyes. She couldn't even be trusted with a gun, but, oh, totally fine if a trained killer - masked by 'virtue' and 'military discipline' - could possess one, despite the blatant evidence around them that they weren't the only ones here. "Because there's no ammo."

...Oh. Maybe it wasn't a matter of trust, then.

"Besides, laser weapons don't have recoil the way ballistics do." Sarah helped herself to the tail end of Piper's dress and tugged it up to disengage what looked like the safety on the pistol; the reporter fired a sour look as she pulled the dress back down to cover her thighs, but it seemed to either be ignored, or was ignored. No other option. "Haven't you ever fired one before?"

"No," Piper shrugged. "Never saw the appeal."

"Never saw the - are you kidding me? They're more efficient, and you don't leave a mess the way you do with ballistics. Think about blood spatters and the bullet casings, and the gunpowder residue, and the list goes on and on."

Um, did Sarah forget about the state of the world? There was debris everywhere on the surface.

"They also leave a horrible smell every time one is fired," Piper countered, "and an even worse smell when something's hit." There was something about getting that discipline and stoicism to crack that was surprisingly amusing, and Piper struggled not to smirk like the Devil. Now she understood how Garrett felt whenever he pushed her buttons and riled her up. "Besides, nobody's going to care about leaving a mess." Laughter snorted in her throat. "What are you, like a germaphobic assassin or something?"

"The only kinds of people I know that would prefer ballistics over energy are undisciplined thugs like raiders who don't know how to handle a laser weapon," Sarah calmly fired back.

Uh huh. All the gloves were off now. Piper's chest puffed out, though she was admittedly a wee bit intimidated when the soldier did the same. There was an aggravating air of authority about Sarah though, and authority never bode well with the reporter, period. Every 'leader' she'd ever met was either ignorant or arrogant, or a liar and an abuser; sometimes even a combination of all of them. It was safe to say the soldier was a natural liar with what the Brotherhood must have demanded of her, both past and now plausibly even the present.

Hell, maybe she even lied to herself.

"The only ones who have to think about efficiency are people who have dedicated their life to be a killer," Piper hissed.

"No. It's people who have dedicated their life to humanity's survival."

"You can't convince me the Brotherhood of Steel is about survival. They have never been about survival - at least, not anybody that wasn't already in their ranks."

"Interesting how you say that despite not ever serving, and assuming I still am." Sarah's eyes narrowed. "Institute dog."

"No, I've just got eyes, and anyone with eyes can see you'll never give that life up. I don't have to be a soldier to know what they're like when I hear all the stories. The Brotherhood is just like the Institute. Both of you only care about yourselves and will do anything to accomplish your own goals and believe that the ends justify the means. It never has. It's just the comforting lie you tell yourself so that you can sleep at night, knowing you took that luxury away from someone else." Piper yelped when her suit jacket was grabbed as she was shoved and pinned to the wall. The cold pistol dug underneath her jaw, and she swallowed nervously at the sight of Sarah's finger on the trigger. Piper refused to back down, though. "Who's the thug now? We've barely talked and you're already resorting to violence to coerce and get what you want."

"Talked? You're accusing the Brotherhood of Steel and comparing them to the fucking Institute when you have no evidence to support any of your points," Sarah seethed. "It's colored conjecture that's come out of nowhere." Nowhere? That was her fault for getting so offended about laser weaponry and taking pot shots because of it. Frigging elitist. She was almost as bad as that perky prick Adam. "You are serving the Institute and you're just trying to manipulate me."

"No I'm not!" A hand snapped around Piper's throat, fingers digging painfully. She gasped and wheezed as the pressure closed her airway, and she clawed helplessly.

"And you know what happened to the last 'Piper' I crossed?" Sarah jammed the pistol into Piper's forehead. "She was bound and gagged, on her knees; the Institute used her to manipulate me then, too. Luki fell for it, and jeopardized the survival of the Commonwealth because of it all. He won't fall for that trick anymore." Dread took over fear when all emotion died in the icy eyes. "I let the Institute put a bullet in that Piper's head, and I found wires. I'm going to find them in yours too."

"Please... Don't... Kill...!"

"You wanted to find the truth, didn't you? This is the only way, because you are the lie."

Piper shrieked, along with metal, and that horrible smell flooded the air. Then nothing.

Life slipped away.