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I walked up to Seventh Heaven. I still didn't have a new bike so I'd had to trek all the way down here from Atlas Academy. I'd even dodged my girlfriends a little which made me feel a touch uncomfortable inside. But it just might prove necessary.
I'd received a message from Bisque stating that we needed to talk in person. The lines might not be secure which as a terrorist organization I said 'fair enough.'
Aurum laid low under the law. That's how he got by and made his money whereas Avalanche played things fast and loose. I wouldn't be shocked if they were being watched when Aurum wasn't per se.
The bells jingled as I walked in.
"Cloud!" Bisque exclaimed. "There you are. Haven't seen you in a few weeks."
"Yeah well I started playing for the other side of the law," I informed him.
"You mean…"
"I won't turn you in or anything but I can't exactly help you out anymore. You got information for me? Is that why you called me down here?"
"We actually wanted your help…"
"More of my help, you mean."
"Yeah well we're only a budding organization."
Someone came down from upstairs in the place. It was Jasper. "Cloud? It's so good to see you!" She walked over and hugged me, her tail swishing all the while.
"Yeah well I'm pretty sure I won't be here for long."
"Oh don't be like that. Let me get you a drink."
"Fuck it. Why not? Get me a screwdriver. Those house specials of yours are too sweet for me and I don't have Neo around."
"Oh? Where is she?" Jasper asked.
"Not sure at the moment. Hopefully laying low and waiting for the next storm to come in. Haven't seen her for two weeks or so. Been busy. Trying to make things right on the proper side of the law."
"Yeah, we've been doing a bit of that ourselves. We've been trying to calm down the protests while still having the political force to back Robyn Hill," Jasper said as she made my drink.
"It's been slow going though. We had no idea when we bombed the mine it would set all this off. If word ever spread around that we were responsible it would collapse in on us," Bisque informed me.
Jasper slid down my screwdriver and I took a long drink of the hard mixer. I took a seat at the bar. And Bisque leaned his elbows on the counter to talk to me.
"Ah…" I breathed off the alcohol after a moment. "How have the protests been going?"
"Good. The people seem ready to vote for Robyn. She made all kinds of campaign promises to make that happen. New standards for miners. An increase in minimum wages. That sort of thing," Jasper chirped in her usual upbeat tone.
"The people have Avalanche to thank for it and some of them know it. They're listening to us," Bisque followed. "Wenge is out leading a strike right now."
"You can hardly tell that they're still going on from up in Atlas," I murmured around my drink.
"They'll see once Robyn is elected," Bisque said. "And that's just a matter of time. No one down here wants Schnee to have any more power than he already has."
"And up in Atlas?" I asked.
"It's more divided. She still has a twenty point lead over him up there against a forty point lead down here. But it's more scary," Jasper murmured. "Atlas has always done its own thing and usually not to the betterment of Mantle."
"Easy enough to do when the city is so divided," I mumbled.
"Two cities," Bisque corrected.
"Not really," I fired back. And I genuinely believed that. It wasn't so different from the tiered cities of Mistral. Separate but together all the same.
Someone came in behind me and I turned to see Barret. The big bear of a man sauntered in with a new mechanical arm on his right side. It gleamed gunmetal grey and seemed to have a gun built into it. I'd seen more than my fair share of arms like that.
"Good, the merc is here," he said in his gruff tone.
"Been trying to get out of that business, actually. Wasn't sustainable for me," I told him. I crossed my arms.
"Dyne has gone off the deep end. He refused a new mechanical arm in favor of just a machine gun. When his wife, Eleanor, died from dust lung he lost it. He's planning all sorts of mayhem and destruction. He already killed fifteen people. Maybe more."
"I see…" I really didn't. I had no idea what he wanted from me in all of this.
"I'm afraid for his little girl, Marigold. She was hurt recently in the protests. I've been looking after her for the last couple of days. He hasn't even been by. I need your help to stop him, bring him back to his senses."
"What makes you think I'm interested or that you have anything I want?" I asked. My arms still folded.
"I have information. I know you'll wan' it. It's about how your bomb went off prematurely on the White Whale."
I stared at him hard. He was right. I did want it. "Give me a teaser, so I know you are serious," I demanded of him.
"Sabotage. It was supposed to go off even earlier if the saboteurs had their way," the large man informed me.
I breathed in a deep shuddering sigh. He was right. I did want that information. Whoever they are they got Neo hurt. Amongst everything else, she was my friend. "I can't get caught doing anything that will violate my parole," I told him.
"Dyne and his gang are criminals right about now. If you're working for the law, it's your job t' bring them in. Alls I'm asking for is a chance to talk t' Dyne before you do."
"And you'll hand over the identity of my saboteurs if I do?" I asked. My bomb going off had been suspicious as all hell to me. I was normally more than proficient with those sorts of bombs despite how flippant I'd been with them. It still stuck out in my mind.
"Got it in one." He grinned at me. Big and fierce under his dark shades. His mechanical arm flexing slightly. I took it in a firm shake.
"Well," I said. "What are we waiting for, then?"
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It was an old warehouse building we pulled up on in Avalanche's truck. I got out first followed by Barret. "Do these guys have aura?" I asked. "I don't want to kill anybody."
"Some."
"That's just great," I said exasperatedly. I sighed and pulled my shield and my sword. I could probably go easy enough that nobody really got hurt. But still, why couldn't all my opponents have the decency to not only have aura but to broadcast how much aura they had?
Just because I was used to killing people didn't mean that I liked it. And I had seriously killed a lot of people in my time. A lot. If there were people as young as I was who had a higher body count I hadn't heard of them. That was going by either definition of age you wanted to use on me. It didn't matter how you wanted to cut how old I was, I was the ninety ninth percentile on murder and mayhem.
We waltzed in the front door of the place. Leaving Bisque out in the truck.
"Barret…" Dyne turned to look at us from a lowered section of the room where he was talking to a handful of people. There was all kinds of machinery to the room. Cranes and jacks and mining equipment.
"Dyne. I'm here to bring you to Marigold. Your daughter needs you," Barrett said.
"You brought the merc. The dust… brother...it's telling me something…" Dyne trailed off.
Okay. This was coming from me, but this guy had officially lost it. I might not be the most stable iceberg in the sea but crazy recognized crazy and this guy had some helpings of it.
"Is it telling you that you're nuts?" I asked. Barret shoved me in the ribs with his metallic elbow.
"...the dust. My path of destruction has brought me here…" Dyne trailed off once more. I lingered behind Barret ready to take down all the others in the room. My longsword and great 't' shaped shield at the ready.
"Why are you doing this Dyne? Why'd you kill those people? The protests don't need to be violent." Barret demanded of him.
"The dust told me to, brother."
"And did the dust tell you why?" Barret wondered, a touch sardonic.
"Why?" Dyne repeated, a bit mockingly. "Why does there got to be a reason that people do things? Is there a why for Eleanor's death? How about your wife Barret? There a why for her dying?"
"She...she's already gone. Dust lung. Same as your wife. That's the why." Barrett murmured in his baritone.
"And still you hold on, brother. You could let go. Be like me."
"And start the wanton, chaotic destruction of people and property?"
"Destruction of everything, brother. That's the goal. That's what we're starting," Dyne shot back.
"You used to be just focused on the Schnee. But then you just started hurting everyone and everything."
"Of course brother." Dyne let out a low chuckle. "Had to be done. The dust told me to do it all."
"What's the dust telling you now? Dyne?" Barrett asked. His voice pleading despite the baritone of it.
"It's telling me that I should see Marigold again." Dyne rubbed at his forehead with his real hand like he had a headache.
"That's… that's great news. Let's go see her right now. She's happy and healthy and safe. I've been looking after her. Just like I promised I would."
"She misses her mother, don't she? I'm sure she does…" Dyne trailed off into a low, mad chuckle.
"Dyne… what are you saying?" Barrett wondered.
"I'm saying I should be there to send her to her mother."
"Yikes," I muttered. "That is a yike from me, dog."
"You'd kill your own daughter? You're not the Dyne I used to know!" Barrett shouted. He ignored me. He pointed his wrist down range at Dyne and his accomplices.
"Oh if you point your weapon at me you best come correct," Dyne all but whispered. "You best come with fire and lightnin'!" Then he roared.
"I don't want to fight you Dyne!"
"I suspect you've got no choice, brother!" He pointed his own wrist mounted gun at the two of us. His friends took up their own arms as well. "Or my path of destruction won't end here! I'll go on to consume every man, woman, and child. Just like the dust consumed me! You understand dontcha? Just like the dust consumed me!" He repeated. His voice had a lilt to it that was hard to place. Like he finally understood everything. Instead he was just rambling like a mad man.
I got that. I'd been there and done that. The whole path of destruction thing, too. First one target then the next then the next. Each seeming as good as any other. Was this what it was like to see it from the outside? It seemed like a lost cause but then I'd come back.
Or had I?
Had I really come back? The only things that kept me from slipping had been the thought of my friends. I was with them now. Well not now, now but I was with them in general. I was back. They were worrying about me. I was worrying about them. We were doing what we could for each other just like before. I even had two girlfriends. Two! That was almost twice as many as one and they loved me. I'd felt their love and the beat of their warm hearts wrapped around me. I'd felt it tight around me. If I lost that like Dyne had would I keep going?
I shuddered at the thought. If Ruby or Weiss died that would probably be it for me. That's it. I'm done. I'm out. Maybe I'd kill myself. Maybe I'd just go on a tear. Tyrian had been a mass murderer; a serial killer. For a moment or two I got the appeal of that. Just killing just to kill. Just to feel something. Anything at all. I got that.
Then there was my Mother. Always pressing on the surface of my mind with her tentacles. Would I give in to that? Maybe. Hard maybe.
Maybe I'd lose them again. Maybe I'd have to run away once more. That wasn't the same as them dying on me. But it was still a possibility. Could I stand to do that again? Another hard maybe. At least I'd have Neo. Wretched thing that she was; that we both were. Couldn't exactly throw that stone.
I pointed my sword down the range and let my shield fall by my side. I was ready to move and act. I could see it all now. Barrett and Dyne opening fire on the other. The rest diving to the side while I moved in. Anybody without aura would be getting ripped to shreds.
"It don't have to be like this! We can still walk away, Dyne!"
"Yes it does brother. You know it does! I'm gonna fight and you gotta try and stop me!"
They started shooting. People dived to the side to avoid the spray of bullets. Rounds pinged off my thick aura and I moved. I blurred into a hovering roll and got beside Dyne and his men. I grabbed one and slammed him into my knee and sliced at another I was pretty sure had aura. I cut deep into it then I reached out with my shield hand and tossed him and he flew until he slammed into one of the cranes.
Barret fired a grenade down into the pit and it exploded sending Dyne rolling with a flare of light blue aura. I sliced at another and bit through his arm. Blood sprayed through the air and he screamed until I punched him in the face with my shield. He went down with a massive bruise forming on his head.
I got on top of Dyne and he opened fire right into my torso with his weapon. The gun arm blared at me and punched holes in my aura that made me stagger about until Barret jumped into the pit and grabbed Dyne's gun arm with his free one and picked him up by it.
He then opened up into Dyne's chest.
I think he meant to stop shooting when Dyne ran out of aura but that grenade had already taken the lion's share of it.
"Don't!" I shouted a moment too late.
A hole blew straight through Dyne's torso and Barrett dropped him in surprise. It left a dying man crawling around on the ground and bleeding out.
"The dust, man. The dust..." Dyne groaned from the pit.
"Dyne!"
"Take this pendant. Give it to Marigold. It belonged to her mother. I can't ever hold her again with these stained hands," Dyne rolled over. "These stained hands." He ripped a pendant from his neck and tossed it up out of the lowered section of floor up at Barrett.
Barret caught it and could do nothing but watch as Dyne died.
"Mine ain't any cleaner, Dyne," Barrett whispered. "Mine ain't any cleaner."
"Take care of her, like she was your own. Please. Look after my Marigold."
"I will." Barrett vowed. And Dyne died in the pit in the floor of the warehouse.
I stabbed my sword into the ground and listened to the sounds of the oncoming sirens.
"Those going to be a problem for you?" I indicated my head in the direction the sirens were coming from. I sheathed my sword and put the whole rig back on my shoulder.
"Nah man. I suppose you'll be wanting your information," he spoke downtrodden and muted compared to his normally fierce voice.
"Yeah. That'd be great."
"It was the Happy Huntresses. They have this invisibility field. They wanted to shut down your op," he told me. He rubbed his face in his hands. Reaching underneath the glasses he wore to rub at his eyes.
"Thanks." I told him. I wiped a few beads of sweat from my brow. "Best of luck with the little girl. That can be a lot to deal with."
"Thank you. For everything," he managed.
"What will you do now?" I asked.
He stretched. "I might join Avalanche. They could use someone like me."
"Might be a good fit. You've got a little girl to look after now, though. Will the terrorism agree with you?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. But I can't let her grow up in a world I know I could have done more for. For my wife. And for Dyne. I know I have to do more. You got people you have to do more for?"
"Yeah. These two ladies and their teammates. I'd kill and die for them."
"You want some advice?" He asked.
"Sure," I said. I could use some genuine advice in the spot I was in. It sounded like he'd lived through it. I could take it.
"Any old fool can kill and die for something. It takes a man to live and let live for something."
I just nodded. Maybe fucking so. It was easy to kill things. So fucking easy. It was so much harder to keep something alive.
I listened and waited for the sirens.
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-WG