Chapter 51: Fight For Your Right.
Shauna let out a bellowing roar so loud it seemed to shake the whole bunker, "Shauna please just let me ex..." Faith began but it was far too late for words for Shauna, the red mist had descended and had taken hold of her.
The mere sight of the damage done to Timothy's body had provided the spark to start the fire, but coming face to face with the perpetrator of said bruises and damage turned that fire into a flame and when she poured her own shame onto it over very nearly striking him herself acted like pure gasoline turning the fire into a raging inferno.
Once Faith started speaking Shauna balled her hands into two fists the size of sledge hammerheads pressing her fingers in so tightly the veins on the back of her hands were pulsing through her skin.
Without a single hint of warning other than balling her fists, Shauna swung with the full intention to knock Faith's head clean off her shoulders and given how strong Shauna actually was that was certainly a possibility but right now she didn't care that she might very well end this woman's life, through the blind rage she didn't care she wanted it, she wanted her dead for what she'd done to him.
Faith's eyes went wide as she saw the punch incoming and with reflexes that a cat or Arachnakai would have been proud of she managed to dodge it, but the power and intention behind it was as clear as day because as it collided with the concrete behind her head had been only a moment before it smashed a huge chunk clean out of it.
"Holy shit! Shauna, please listen to me!" Faith yelled as she desperately ducked and weave as Shauna swung punch after punch at her but even though her rage clouded vision Shauna's analytical mind was still functioning in the background, so it began to read a pattern to her movements and with one single adjustment to her own movements she broke through the pattern.
The punch collided with Faith's chest with such force that she heard the ribs below it go with a series of sharp cracks, Faith flew backwards like she'd been hit by a truck sending her sailing down the corridor where she landed hard on her backsliding to a halt at the feet of Gregory and Malakai who were just coming the other way to find out what all the noise was.
Both of their eyes went as wide as dinner plates as Faith howled in pain at their feet, they looked up and saw Shauna stomping towards them with murder in her eyes, "Get Seven! Now!" Malakai yelled to Gregory who nodded and dashed off into the bunker as Malakai stepped in-between the oncoming Shauna.
"Fucking move Malakai! I'm going to kill that fucking bitch!" Shauna bellowed at the rather nervous hell full-on fearful Archnakai boy who had put his sizeable bulk in between her and her downed target.
"Stop it, Shauna! You don't want to do this!" Malakai yelled holding up his hands in a gesture trying to ease her fury.
"She hurt Timothy and now I'm going to fucking hurt her! I'm going to show her exactly how it feels to be hurt alone and scared! I am going to show her exactly what real fucking far is!" she bellowed back at him making the large Arachnakai boy flinch but he held firm.
"I'm not going to let you hurt her Shauna, she's had enough, she's down, she's defenceless, if you want her you are going to have to go through me!" Malakai shouted back moving himself so that Faith was underneath his belly and protected by his eight legs.
"You think I don't know what it feels like to be scared? To be hurt? To be alone? That my every fucking day!" Faith said in a weak and rattling wheezing but still angry sounding voice from underneath Malakai who was still stood protectively over her.
"Move Malakai I don't want to hurt you too! You're my friend! But she needs to pay for what she's done!" Shauna yelled while smashing the side of her fist into the concrete to her side so hard she cracked it.
That's when Faith started laughing in a bitter sounding voice which added a fresh injection of fuel to the flames burning bright in her heart, "Don't you act so high and fucking mighty you were going to the exact same thing only moments before because he embarrassed you, so don't you act so high and fucking mighty, we're no different, we're the fucking same, I didn't mean to do what I did and I'm not fucking proud of it, I never meant to hurt him I just lost control and lost my temper I..." she said starting in a shout but ending in a whisper before her voice morphed into a whisper before changing into a full-on sob.
"WE ARE NOT THE SAME!" Shauna bellowed and she lunged forwards in order to try and shove Malakai out of the way so she could get to the man beating piece of shit he was shielding but the young Arachnakai boy was a hell of a lot stronger than he looked, those feet of his clamped down on the floor making him hold strong and not budge an inch as she tried to push him away.
"Shauna stop it! Calm down and don't do this! Please!" Malakai yelled grabbing hold of her hands and holding them in place like they were wrestling.
"She hurt him! She hurt Timothy and I'm not going to let her get away with it! I have to defend him! I have to make it right! I have to..." Shauna began but she began to waver as the reality of what she was doing began to crash in on her, Faith's words began to ring true in her mind.
Suddenly out of nowhere Shauna flew backwards before being suspended in the air, she began to thrash around but she couldn't move and it felt like huge hands were holding her hands above her head and as she looked up she saw Seven standing behind Malakai with both Ven and Visa at his shoulders, not one of them looked happy in the slightest.
"Malakai binds her hands and feet please," Seven said calmly but also very coldly indicating the sheer level of his anger, that's when the shame and the guilt poured in from both sides like two dams breaking in her soul making her hang her head.
"There's no need, I won't fight you," she said and Seven looked at right into her eyes but there was no rage, no fury, just pure disappointment and that hurt far worse than if he'd gone nuclear on her.
"I'll be the judge of that and right now I think you do need it so please don't resist Shauna," he said and his voice echoing the disappointment that was in his eyes and she nodded silently.
"She doesn't need to be, this isn't her fault it's mine," Faith said weakly and Seven switched his gaze to her as Malakai moved off her and onto the downed Ghoul.
"Well I'm glad you admitted that but I'll fucking decide what happens from here on out," he said coldly.
Malakai stepped forwards and he wrapped layers of silk around Shauna's wrists till they were bound together, "That's not too tight is it?" he asked and Shauna shook her head she looked up at him and she could see the disappointment written over his face as well making the guilt infinitely worse.
"I'm so sorry Malakai, I never meant for any of this to happen, I hope I didn't hurt you," she said softly, but rather than answer her he simply looked at her and then bound her ankles just like Seven had said until she couldn't move.
Seven kneeled down at Faith's side and he looked her over, "I..." she began but Seven held up a hand to silence her.
"Don't want to hear it, not yet, all of your ribs are broken and you are bleeding, Malakai will take you to the med bay and we will get you fixed up, then we are going to have a long discussion" he said.
"I'll be fine, but please go and check on Timothy, II hurt him," she said sounding very forlorn.
Seven set Shauna down so she was sat on the floor with her hands and feet bound, then he turned, "Gregory you and Ven go and check on Tim, I'm pretty sure that the last people he wants to see at the moment are any of the girls" he said and Gregory nodded and with a gesture, he and Ven headed off down the corridor, Seven turned and using his power again he hoisted Shauna up off the ground and made her float through the air towards her room, once there he placed her down on the bed, "I'll be back in a little while and then we are going to sit down and we are all going to talk" he said and Shauna nodded silently glad that she didn't need the toilet.
Shauna sat silently alone in her room with her thoughts and it didn't take long for all the anger, guilt and shame to well back up and this time instead of turning into violence it turned into pure grief, tears began to stream down her cheek, she was under no illusions that Timothy would absolutely hate her now, all the work that Seven had done, all the goodwill he had fostered and worked so hard to create she had just undone but the worst thing for her was the fact that she had not only scared Timothy but had most likely been the reason that he had gotten hurt.
Seven eventually returned and she looked up at him hopefully, "Is Timothy ok?" she asked and Seven looked at her but at least now his expression was softer.
"He's pretty shaken up and his nose was broken, but he's ok, Gregory and Runs are looking after him, but he's pretty scared," he said and she nodded feeling relieved at that he was ok at the least.
He reached out and the bonds around her ankles broke and she instantly rubbed them feeling relived, "Come on we have to talk" he said and she got to her feet and followed him to the lounge where they found Faith sat in a chair with her chest and ribs bandaged, she refused to meet either of their eyes as they entered, also present was Markus and Visa as well as Malakai.
"Take a seat because we are going to fucking sort this shit out now and none of us is fucking leaving this room until it is," Seven said gesturing to one of the seats and Shauna moved over and set herself down into one of the large seats as Seven moved over and stood in front of Visa who was glaring at them menacingly.
"I've spoken to Timothy and he's told me what happened but I want to hear it from you both, so Faith you are first, so let's hear it," Seven said with a gesture.
Faith took a deep breath and nodded, "I fucked up majorly and i know it let me get that out there first, I saw what happened between Shauna and Timothy and i kinda felt smug about it and yeah I know that's fucked up but it kinda felt like my feelings were being justified, she kinda made a bit of a pass at him and while he didn't rebuff her he seemed lost for what to say to her, so he kinda just said the first thing that came into his head and it was obvious, he got embaressed and nervous as I guess he's probably got no experience with women, especially not with non human women and I thought it was funny, obviously she didn't because she got embaressed and kinda nearly lashed out at him and i think for a moment she nearly lost it but stopped herself at the last moment making him fall over and cower on the floor and I ummm and fuck i know this sounds really bad but it kinda made me feel good, it made me feel like my feelings towards him are justified, so after she ran off I just taunted him, I told him that I wished she'd beaten him up, he lashed out at me though not violently, he just told me to fuck off and to leave him alone, he called me an awful person for wishing violence on him for fucking nothing and while I know he was absoultly right it pissed me off and I just lost it, I hit him pretty hard and it knocked him down, I think I broke his nose, i know I made him bleed and as soon as i saw his blood it made me feel scared because i knew in that moment I'd fucked up really but instead of stopping it was like I was trying to justify the way I felt and I took it out on him, so i doubled down and jumped on him, I-I-I put a knife to his throat and threatened to cut it, I told him some fucking horrible things, I told him that I could kill him and that there would be nothing he could do about it and that no one would really care if I did, I threatened his life, told him I was going to hurt him b-b-but then I-I-I kinda realised what I was doing, it was like just hit me all at once, I realised that by doing what I was doing I was simply proving to him that non humans were everything he believed us to be, what he believed me to be, a feral fucking monster, please Seven you have to believe me when I say I simply don't have the words to tell you how sorry I am for what I've done to him, h-h-he's not a bad person, b-b-but what I saw in his eyes will never leave me, he was scared and I mean fucking terrified of me, but I saw worse, h-h-he just accepted it, he accepted that he was going to die by my hands and that scared me badly, that poor man just accepted that I was going to murder him for no reason other than I didn't like what he represented, God they were right, the fucking Brotherhood were absoultly right, I am a fucking monster" Faith said and with she broke down in a flood of tears.
Rather than comfort her like he normally would have Seven simply turned to face Shauna and she felt herself withering under the intensity of his stare, boy this human didn't even need that Telekinetic power of his he could simply stare right into your soul and set it on fire or freeze it like ice, she was beginning to really see what Visa saw in this man because other than his good looks he was a being of sheer force and will power, Visa had told her stories of when they had first met in the quiet hours of how nervous and quiet he was but now she could easily see how he hadn't just come out of his shell but he'd he'd really found himself and it was really endearing how he was so willing to stand for every one of them.
"Your turn," he said coldly.
Shauna took a deep breath and tried to stop her hands from shaking, she felt like she was back at school and she'd forgotten to do her science homework, but this was far far worse, she knew this man had the power to not only kick out of this group but to end her life with nothing but a single thought but at this exact moment she was actually unsure which one would be worse.
This group had given her a place and a purpose, for the first time since all this had happened not only did she feel like she had a place in the world but that she had a real family, so to be evicted out of it because of stupidity and leaving her to now make her own way into the world would be devastating to her and she was completely positive it would be a death sentence, so it might be more merciful if he were to simply kill her now, at least it would be quick.
"Well first thing I want to say is that I am so fucking sorry, I-I-I never meant for any of this to happen, things just got our of hand fast, we were working well together and we'd just figured out the helmets and a potential way that we could counter it and we were kinda getting close, he called me beautiful and I kinda put him on the spot by asking him what he meant by it, he told me that I was the most beautiful super mutant girl that he'd ever seen and I got mad because I felt that he was evading the question, I just didn't realise that I'd embaressed him and put him on the spot or just how incredibly shy he is, it embaressed me and I lost control and I kinda got angry, I kinda just rushed at him and he fell down in the heat of the moment I felt like I was going to hit him for embaressing me but I came to my senses and stopped myself and I really scared myself because I kinda realised what I had very nearly done and just how badly I had scared the poor guy half to death and if I'm honest it scared me just as much because of how close I came to laying hands on him for absoultly no reason, I should have stayed and I should have apologized to him right there and then but I was angry, confused and scared of myself, but then after I calmed down i realised that I needed to apologise to him even if he still hated me I needed to still to try and make it someway right and that's when I found him in his room and I saw what Faith had done to him, I-I-I lost control, I couldn't handle it, I saw the man that I really like, hell I think that after today I'm even fallen in love with, hurt, scared and grief stricken I couldn't take it, when I saw her I didn't know if she was coming back to finish what she'd started and I lost control, but none of it excuses my actions" Shauna said forlonely.
"No you're right it doesn't, none of what either of you did is in any way fucking right," Seven said looking between them both.
First, he turned to Faith, "You claim to want to protect Ghouls and to work toward making people see Ghouls not only as equals but as the same as they are, just people like them, do you in any fucking sense of reality that that is ever going to happen if you do something like that to an innocent man?" he said and Faith hung her head so that her tears dropped off her chin onto her knees.
"I know, I fucked up big time and I deserve to be punished for it," she said.
"You are damn right you do, that man did NOTHING to you, fucking nothing, but you were ready to take his fucking life from him and I know in this world law and consequence are nothing more than fucking words, well I can fucking tell you right fucking now that that shit stops right fucking now, I swore to make this group, this team, this fucking family a symbol for people to believe in, something for people to look up to and to emulate, to see how we live and who we are and to try and emulate us so they can make their own lives better, to embrace and celebrate differences rather being scared and rejecting them out of hand, to look at us and to see that possibly humans and non-humans can live and work together on building a new future for themselves together not only to love one another but how in the name of fuck can I do that if I ignore things like this?" Seven said angrily glaring at them both but he was far from finished.
He strode towards Faith and she looked up at him and tried to hold his withering gaze, "I know you hate the fucking Brotherhood and with good reason but you need to understand that not every single person is a racist or a bigot, just not like every fucking Ghoul is a feral, but you have to start treating people as fucking people and that means EVERY person, regardless of who they are are and where they came from, that man was born into the Brotherhood and raised by them and he still rejected their ideology in favour of ours, we gave him the chance to prove himself to us and to prove himself worthy to join us, to walk with us, work with us and to come us on our journey, that's exactly what he did, he worked with us to help us free the claws from the Enclave, he didn't have in reality, he could have simply refused and told us to return him to the Brotherhood and I would have done it, he is not a prisoner here, but you apparently think its absoultly fine to inflict violence on him and to threaten his fucking life, over a fucking argument because you were in a position of power over him because he was unarmed," Seven yelled.
Faith's head hung lower and she sank into the seat as the weight of Seven's anger pressed down her like a ten-ton weight, "Well Visa here is unarmed too would you like to try the same shit with her?" Seven snarled gesturing to the angry-looking claw standing directly behind him and right on cue, Visa snarled low and menacingly flicking her claws so they extended slightly and the light glinted off them showing the razor-sharp edges.
"Oh wait no your problem is with smooth skins right? Well, how about me then? You wanna try that shit with me instead? Seven snarled and Faith actually looked scared now and she glanced at Markus but to his credit, the male Ghoul simply glared at her disapprovingly.
"N-No" she stammered.
"Oh? And why is that? Is it because you know that I'd turn you into a soda can before you got a chance to get out of that fucking chair? Or is it because..." Seven said and that's when Sheila felt a powerful shift in air pressure and when she glanced back to Seven her breath caught in her chest her heart began to hammer in her chest as she saw him, there were wings on his back or what appeared to be wings made from what looked to be pure black energy of some kind but where unmistakably wings and his whole body was surrounded by an aura of black energy.
"...I haven't made you angry enough?" Seven finished and when Faith looked up at him again she looked completely terrified by the sight she saw.
"W-W-What are you!?" she exclaimed pushing herself back into her chair and Seven simply looked at his hand which looked like it was burning a pure black and white fire, his hair was standing up and waving like tentacles that crackled with the same energy that flowed all around him.
"Me? I'm human, but I'm also more and before you say it n is not because of what I can do, it's because of who I am, it's real easy to lash out in anger at those that anger us, hell if I wished to I could turn you into a fine paste before you ever had the chance to blink, but that's not who I am, because I believe the only place that violence has in this world is to be used for good, to help people who need it, to protect them, to save them, to defend them, it needs to be controlled, to be channelled and that's what you need to fucking learn" and with that, he snapped his fingers and he went back to normal and turned to look at Shauna.
"Both of you," he said.
Suddenly Shauna understood perfectly what he was saying, she remembered how he had looked back at paradise falls, this was his anger, his fury, his raw power that simply begged him to release it and to use it to punish those he saw as guilty, but she could see it in his eyes, a silent promise that he had made to himself, to only ever use this gift to protect, to defend, to save people.
It would be surely easy for him to simply walk into any place he wanted and just level it with a single thought, he could wipe out the entire of the Brotherhood with a single snap of his fingers but that's not who he was, he reined it in and he controlled it through his sheer will and through his discipline and that's what he was trying to show them if you let anger win then you lose.
"So here it is my ultimatum and my judgement, Faith I'm giving you one last chance to prove yourself to us but as of now my trust in you is gone and you are going to have to earn it back, if you ever and I mean this ever raise your hands to a member of this group or someone under it's protection again I will make you pay for it, trust to me is everything and if I can't trust you I can't allow you to be around us, all these people have put their faith and belief in me, to lead them and to protect them whether I like it or not so this is how it is, so if you want to be among us you answer to me now whether you like it or not, if that's not what you want then by all means leave and go back to fucking Underworld, no-one is going to stop you or chase after you, but if you want to be among us and to see where this road takes us then you follow our rules to the fucking letter and you get those fucking issues and that temper of yours under control or I'll fucking do it for you and trust me you will not like my way, if you need help we will give it but you need to accept that the fault is your and to want to get better" he said.
Faith looked truly amazed that Seven was willing to give her another chance but then she looked shocked, "H-H-How did you know I wanted to come with you!? I never said that to anyone!?" she exclaimed and Seven smirked.
"You think you are the only one who has eyes everywhere? Let's just say I know people with skills you wouldn't believe" he said.
Now Markus looked shocked and he turned to her, "You want to go with them Faith? To leave Underworld?" he asked and she nodded.
"I've travelled this world for over two hundred years Markus and while I love it at Underworld it's just more of the same, division, segregation, us hiding in a fucking hole in the ground hoping no-one finds us, these people are the first one's I've seen in over two hundred years who are genuinely trying to make things better for everyone, they are truly good people and I want in, I want to be a part of the message they are trying to spread, I agree with them, it's not up to humans to simply accept us for who we are, it's up to us to show them that not only can we BE trusted but that we are no different from them in any way that counts, it's all in the actions if normal people see us standing for them when no one else will then and only then will they start to truly see us for who we really are, it's up to us to prove that we are worthy of the trust we want, just like it's up to me to prove to Seven that the chance he is giving me is not squandered," Faith said and Seven nodded approvingly.
"I'm very glad that you finally fucking see that, maybe you are not such a lost cause after all but I stand by what I said Faith, you ever raise a hand to one of my people or someone we protect again and you'll find out I am a man of my word, I protect my people and there is NO length that I will not go to protect, defend or avenge them, they showed me who I really am when I was lost in the world scared and vulnerable, the protected me, helped me and in the case of this glorious woman here loved me, now I do the same for every one of them, well except for the love part, that for her alone," Seven said stroking Visa's long arm.
"I swear this to you Seven I will never do this again, I will try to get some help with my issues and I will apologise to Timothy in either private or before everyone whatever it takes to show you all that I'm serious about this and about where I want to be," she said.
Seven nodded and then turned to Shauna, "I'm going to put the same to you Shauna, you may not of struck him but the intent was there, your only saving grace is that you got yourself under control when it mattered so I'm not going to be as harsh with you, because I can see that there is something there in you that protected him from you and that's important I think, but you need to learn to channel that anger where it needs to be and we can help with that, that poor man did absoultly nothing wrong all he did was let his shyness get the better of him and you nearly punished him for it, think about how he feels for a moment here, here he is totally outside his comfort zone fighting against everything he's been taught and had shoved down his throat single the moment he was was able to talk, there he was trying his hardest to to make sense of the strange feelings he was having, he was despretly trying to take these first steps down a path that both scares the shit out of him but also exities him and then you lashed out at him the first time he stumbled when you should have helped him to understand him, you had a real chance to show him where he went wrong but instead you reinforced the stuff that was shoved down his throat since he was born" he said and Shauna felt the tears begining to fall as his words tore her soul into shreds one piece at time but then a realisation hit her and she looked up at Seven and she saw no malice or anger in his eyes this time, there was only pity and what looked like sorrow.
"He told you these things didn't he?" she said and he smiled sadly and nodded.
"Some of it, the rest I pieced together from what he was saying, the fear had hold of him tightly and it took quite a while for me to pry him lose, now I don't know if he be willing to give you another chance with his heart given you very really nearly tore it from his chest, but he is willing to continue to work with him but let me make a suggestion for you here, pride is important trust me I'm a living embodiment of it at times but just ike I did you need to learn when you need to put it to one side and to to show someone that they and their feelings are worth more to you than your own pride, because if you dodn't then the ones you care about will always know that you will never truly give them your full self nor will you ever truly trust them with your most vulnerable and that will cause you to lose them, but like I said it might very well be too late with him because of what you did and that's fair enough really, as much as I truly worship the ground that Visa walks upon if she ever raised her hand to me in anger I'd walk away in a heartbeat, because at that point I would simply not be able to be vulnerable and exposed around her because I'd not be able to trust her but it is a lesson you need to learn and accept either way" Seven said and Shauna noticed the look on Visa's face behind him as well that said she was surprised by the power of his words but also agreed with them.
"If I did ever raise my claw in anger to the one I love I would fully expect this group to expel me because at that point I would be a bad claw, a vile mate abusing claw, I would not be worthy of the place he gave me at his side, my anger while it is always there will always only ever be unleashed on those that truly deserve it, those that would harm us or those we protect because that is righteous anger and anger that serves the innocent to be avenged and protected is called justice and that's what we must strive to be sister, because in the eyes of those that do not know us we will always be monsters, so it is up to us to prove ourselves and to show them who what we are, what we stand for and what we can do, we must earn the place's at their sides that we crave, just as I earned mine you to must earn yours," Visa said proudly and Seven nodded.
"For the time being you will both have a chaperone until you both earn my trust back, they will go with you everywhere, if you are smart you will show them and the rest of us that you have heeded my words and you can also use it as a chance to possibly get their help with what plagues you, who knows maybe their insight might very well show you the peace you need to bring you back to where you need to be, so Shauna Ven will be yours and Faith you get Wisp," Seven said and the pair nodded fully understanding why he was doing this, they were going to be observed and if they stepped out of line again they'd be gone.
"Thank you Seven," they both said in unison.
"Thank me by making this right," he said and with that, he was gone.
As Ven and Wisp stepped into the room Shauna silently swore to herself that she was going to make this right, she was going to go to Timothy the first chance he allowed and she was going to get down on her knees and she was going to show him how sorry she was, she was going to make him believe it, they had been given a chance that neither of them deserved and she for one was not going to squander it and that's when it clicked Seven was a lot smarter than she had given him credit for, it didn't start then, it started now.
Shauna got to her feet and in front of Markus, Ven and Wisp she walked across the room to Faith and she held out her hand to her, "I am sorry for what I did to you and said to you, but I also want you to know that I believe in these people, in what they stand for and what they offer to this world, so right here right now I want you to know that I will defend them and stand for them as they stood for me, I lost the most important person in my world fighting at their sides and I have given too much to throw the chance that they have given me away, I will protect them from anyone who would try to hurt them" she said and Faith looked at her in amazement but then Shauna saw her eyes shine as she got her meaning to say that I'm going to apologise to you once but if you try to hurt anyone else I will defend them, win or lose.
"I accept your apology Shauna and honestly it's not needed, I completely deserved it and to be fair it was about time someone beat some sense into me and I don't know if it means anything to you but I'm glad it was you, at least it showed both him and me that for all your faults your were willing to lay it on the line and defend him, that's gotta be a start right?" she said taking and shaking her hand.
"I hope so Faith I really do," Shauna said and from the nod of Ven's head she knew she had made the right choice here, now all she had to do was convince Tim of her sincerity which would be easier said than done.