The Ashlanders - Chapter 6: The Blind Man's Last Gambit (Closed, Started)

[Daystar Clarion]

How was it possible for an event full of people who would just as soon stab each other in the back, so boring? Asad stifled a yawn, scratching the end of his nose to disguise it even further.

'Smoooooooth, Harel. Nobody saw that.'

As the evening began to draw out, the nobles finished making their small talk, they began to leave one by one, their obligation to attend another party they didn't really care about, for a person they didn't really know, fulfilled. All to entertain some slither of a chance that it may benefit them in the future.

At least the girl got something out of all this, which was some kind of consolation, although he guessed Elizabeth would sooner burn it all if it meant she could walk out of the place a free woman.

As he chatted idly with Tsubaki, one eye on the ever thinning crowd of people, until eventually the party was officially over, Elizabeth called out to him.

"Major. You can take the night off. Dio and I are having supper together."

Before he could respond, Tsubaki spoke her concerns.

"I was not informed of this. Who's on security detail?"

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Commander." Asad muttered to Tsubaki before he locked eyes with Elizabeth. She'd be fine, this was nothing more than a late night meal. Bowing slightly to the Lady, Asad smiled. "Very well, My Lady, have a pleasant evening." Turning his gaze to Basilio, Asad straightened his posture before saluting. "Thank you for permitting the Commander and myself to attend such a prestigious event."



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Allie was getting some much needed rest when some unthoughtful bastard decided to set off an alarm. Moaning, she burrowed her head in her pillow, folding it to cover her ears. "No, no, you cannae explode now, do it tomorrow, we can die in a fireball tomorrow." After a few moments, and just before Allie had resigned herself to vacating her bed, the sound simply vanished. Pausing for a moment, Allie sighed as she began to doze once more, her hair covering her face. "Good girl." She patted the hull of the ship sleepily. "So considerate, aye, kill us all tomoro..." She trailed off, her gentle snoring ruffling the curls in front of her mouth.

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Lilith shivered gently, her breath visible even inside the environmental tent. Already wearing two layers of clothing, as well as a poncho and cloak, she also had all the blankets of the tent bundle on top of her.

She was quite the sight.

"F-f-fuck you, Florian." She was tricked. With the way the priest had described it, the North was a beautiful place. Those were frigid deceptions. It was cold, and pain, and cold, and barren, and cold.

At first, the drop in temperature was welcome, it certainly made the endless miles of travel more comfortable, she even preferred it. That was the first night. Oh how naive that Lilith was, she didn't know, she didn't know what was coming, what awaited her.

"This is what I get for leaving him behind." The girl chuckled to herself. "I'm s-sorry, Axel."

If she could have brought him along with her, she would have, but she couldn't risk the chance of getting stopped, and she wasn't even sure the boy would have gone a long with her plan, and there's no way her would have let her leave if that were the case. No, he'd look up at her with those big brown eyes and that would be that, she would have stayed. No doubt he hated her right now, at the end of the day she was no better than Merry in that regard. As she filled with regret, smiling sadly, she promised herself she'd make it up to him somehow.

Even with the bitterly encroaching cold, Lilith had made good time. According to her map, one more good day of travel and she'd be in Frostfall by sundown. What awaited her then she could only dream of. Which she did.

A warm crackling fireplace, a cigarette, some whiskey, and maybe, just maybe, a good friend to enjoy it with her.

---

Spoiler: Ice, ice, baby

Spending the day in what Lilith could only describe as 'bollock shattering frigidness', She had finally made it. As the Dome came into sight, the faint lights of the interior were quite possibly the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Not because they were aesthetically pleasing, god no, the dome was ugly as hell. No, but what lay in wait within.

Sweet, sweet warmth.

Passing through the transition tunnel and into the dome, Lilith pulled off her breathing mask, immediately regretting the decision as the cold bit at her exposed lips. Inhaling sharply through gritted teeth, she rubbed the scar on her cheek. She was finding that didn't like the cold either.

As she came to a barricade, guarded by three guards, one of them gestured for her approach. Pulling up beside the man, he addressed her in the native tongue.

'This is it Lily, time to put those Northern language lessons to good use.'

Hesitating slightly, the girl fumbled with her hood as she pulled it down. ["I do not speak good please, could you thank you speak Southern?"] Laughing nervously, Lilith rubbed the back of her head as the guard looked at her at what could be best described as begrudging amusement.

"Why you here?" He said gruffly, his accent thick, but definitely familiar.

"I, er, I'm here to find someone." She glanced at the other two guards, who seemed more concerned about what keeping an eye on the city, than the gate.

"Where you come from?" He asked curiously. "Is bad time for foreigner to be in city." He warned. "We recently have ehhhhh." He struggled as he tried to find the words. "Political upheaval. Change in management."

Lilith jumped as an explosion echoed throughout the city. The guard's expression remained unchanged. "Change sometimes hard for people to accept, da?"

Lilith's eyes shifted as what the guard said dawned on her. She could hear it, the whole city was bustling, something happened here. Was this why Florian hadn't got in contact? Returning her attention the guard's question, Lilith smiled. "I live in a ship, we don't really stop anywhere too long."

"Ehhhh, your accent, does not seem familiar, Boomhower? Yuteni? Ehhhh..."

Lilith interrupted the man's guessing. "Sherwood, I'm originally from Sherwood."

"Never heard of it." The guard mumbled as he noted something down on the check board in his hands. Looking up at the girl, his eyes fell on her scarf. "Move along, keep nose out of trouble, da?"

"Yes sir, [Thank you]." Lilith grinned. The guard called out to the other two men, who promptly lifted the barricade. Accelerating slowly, the girl drove under the barricade and into the city proper.

Lilith's earlier suspicions were confirmed as she drove through the city. The place was a mess. Looters, street brawls, and a general air of chaos permeated the atmosphere of the place. As the darkness quickly descended over the city, the noises only grew louder. She wasn't going to begin her search until the morning anyway, but now she was considering that her choice in sleeping arrangements might have to be considered more thoughtfully.

Deciding it would be better to stay away from the centre of the city, Lilith found her way to a relatively quiet area. There was no one on the streets, which she guessed was a good start. Finding a small bar, she asked the bar tender, who thankfully spoke in a language she understood, friendly chap, he redirected her to a small motel a few streets down, told her to tell the guy who owned in that 'Sergei had sent her.'

Hot, the shower was hot. Lilith groaned as the steaming water washed the grime from her skin and the chill from her bones. It may have possibly been the best shower she ever had, definitely in the top five.

As she sat on the windowsill, wearing a a loose vest and some shorts, peering out over the city from the third floor of the tiny motel, she took a long drag of her cigarette. She had pulled the portable heater away from the corner, and it was now humming gently not more than a few feet away from her, the grill glowing red as it gently warmed the room on its maximum setting.


As the distant sound of another explosion rattled the window, Lilith frowned, smoke crawling from her nostrils. What had the priest gotten himself in to? She'd begin her search tomorrow, but not before she did a little shopping. Her current clothing was woefully inadequate.

Another explosion, closer this time.

"From one shithole to another." Lilith chuckled.

 

[The Funslinger]

Well, that was it. Lilith was gone, simple as that. After they had gone to get Millie from Bennie's room, she and Whiskey had gone to their own. Ruffles had gone to the engine room to check everything was ticking over fine. It was, of course. It was his handiwork, after all.

After that, he grabbed a six pack of beers from his room, and headed to Sprout's door. There was no way the kid would have taken this well. When he stood close, he could hear the muffled sound of crying. Knocking gently, he said, "hey buddy, it's me. Mind if I come in?"

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

It didn't take long for the news of Lilith's departure to circulate around the whole ship. Details about precisely where she was going and what she intended to do were more fluid, changing it seemed between each retelling. For Amy's part, she had a clue, and she wished Lilith the best of luck (Florian had been kind to her after all). However, she was more focussed on what Lilith's absence meant to her. For that, she had to extend her thanks to her fellow blonde-haired kin, for this sudden departure really could not have aided Amy's goals more had she orchestrated it herself. With one of the most senior Maiden's left abandoning him without his leave, Bennie had been made to look weak as a Captain, and Axel was sure to blame him for the loss of another friend, be it only temporary. Distanced from Bennie, emotionally vulnerable, and of possibly the only other voice of dissent left to him, Axel's affections had just been served up to Amy on a silver platter.

Amy's instincts still warned her to be cautious. Axel's loneliness might nudge him further in her direction. However, that did not mean he still wouldn't react badly if she pushed too hard. That said, after this news, and after her revealing talk with Bennie earlier, she was feeling bold.

As she approached Axel's cabin, she saw Ruffles was going to beat her too it. For now, she'd hang back. She wouldn't want to make Axel feel crowded. Besides, this would be a good opportunity to gauge how receptive his mood was.

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The silence over Varrdenheim was barely disturbed by the whine of the VTOL's engines, as it drifted gracefully though on of the many large fissures that had opened up in the old dome's surface. The appetite of the dead city was such, that it seemed to effortlessly swallow all noise, all light, all life that ventured within it's long since condemned boundaries. The twin suns setting, The Gentleman looked out of the window of the fuselage to survey the view below through an ochre haze, caused by the dust that now streamed in from the wastes outside, beginning to reclaim the city street by street, year by year. It was not a large dome, what was left of it, however, the city within was cramped, the ramshackle shacks of the shanty towns on the outskirts piled on top of each-other, before giving way nearer the centre once monolithic tower blocks, a rare architecture in the Ashlands. Unique, just like the city as a whole had once hoped to be. Even these, however, paled beside the heights of the Ivory Tower (even though only it's bottom half remained standing), the perimeter of its grounds ringed by now-ruined cooling towers, looking for all the world like turrets set around a castle's keep.

At its height, Varrdenheim had once been a city of nearly two hundred thousand people. It's rapid rise fuelled by the boon of a noble lineage who's good fortune was exceeded only by their avarice. This noble family, had sought to rise above all others by removing themselves from the yoke of the carbon economy, which did not favour them as well as they would have liked. They sought to do this through the rekindling of an ancient fire, recapturing a long forgotten method of extracting energy though the splitting of unstable atomic isotopes. Dismissed by many naysayers as folly, the nobles of Varrdenheim nonetheless succeeded in rediscovering the technique for harvesting massive amounts of power from relatively little material, and prospered, their small city growing into a teeming metropolis, and becoming ever more insular, as the family sought to jealously guard the secret to their success. In time, greed bred arrogance and carelessness, and eventually, Varrdenheim was rocked by catastrophe. Flooded with radiation, the city was entirely abandoned over half a century ago. In the present day, even though the high winds of the Ashlands had since carried most of the lethal material away from the city, most still keep well clear of the site. Even to those who do not fear the ruins, what reason is there to go back. All the wealth and power of Varrdenhiem either fled, or died, with its citizens. That made it the perfect place for disreputable characters of all shapes and sizes to meet, far from the eyes of any authorities. Not only that, but if forces from either Feroxi or Parasido were tracking The Gentleman's movements, they would find it far harder to conceal themselves from him here, than they would a bustling city full of inconspicuous crowds.

"Set us down here." The Gentleman informed the pilot, gesturing to the remains of a school playground, which offered enough open space for them to land safely.

 

[Dogmatic99]

Gale had been spending her evening in the cramped confines of the Maiden's quirky little crow's nest. A job she should have been doing for a long time but Lady Fortune had been using the place as her personal lair so most folks hadn't gotten a look in edge-ways.

Who had she been to hog one of the cushy jobs on the ship? Their savior as it turned out. Lookout may have been easy but it was also boring as all hell. Private enough to be alone time, jobby enough so you could never relax. Not Gale anyway, she was still too new to risk slacking off and end up being the numpty that dropped the ball on kids watch. Well at least she had Martin with her to practice her chords.

It was well into her watch and she was practicing the old streamers song when she glanced up to see a plume of dust kicking up just below her near the edge of the ship. Weird. Then the alarm sounded, almost deafening her as the little box became a blaring hell.

"Ooooooh crapohcrapohcrap!"

Gale scrambled down the ladder, not so easy when you're gripping your guitar like a little rifle. She ran straight for the bridge just like a good little messenger only for all the drama to stop when she was half way there as all the noise died down and everybody who was out trudged back to the rooms, sleepy eyed and grumbling. So did she not fuck up? Better to check, she guessed.

"Uuuh, we got a problem chief?" Gale asked, awkwardly stepping onto the open bridge and finding a lone Bennie.

Bennie had been staring out into the endless, empty expanse for what felt like an eternity. He was so lost in his own head that when someone finally came calling for him he almost didn't even hear them at all. "No," he said, his back still turned to Gale, "everything's fine. Lilith's gone to Frostfall to find a Maiden who went MIA before Yuteni." He looked at her from over his shoulder. "It's nothing to worry about."

"You sure about that? Cus you and those alarms don't sound like folks that're all that okay." Suddenly remembering to put her domer manners on Gale tried to halt herself. "Pardon me, Chief, it's just that usually when I see a fella go off on his own and stare into space it tends to mean he's smartin' from something."

"Yeah," Bennie admitted with a small chuckle, "today's had its fair share of twists and turns." He turned to face the young woman. "It's nothing you need to worry about though, Gale. Trust me." After spending a brief moment looking her over, he changed the subject. "How are you liking it here? Is being a Maiden all that you imagined or are you still waiting to make that call until after your first job?"

"That'd be the smart thing to do I guess." Gale smiled. "I dunno, all in all this isn't too different from the caravan as yet. Well the practical stuff anyway, plenty of work to go round and always an engine that needs lookin' at." She made herself a little more comfortable as she suddenly remembered she was still holding Martin.

"Still a little weird though, like, I can't tell if I'm joining a crew or a family. Hell, never been part of a crew before so maybe it's the same thing." She shrugged. "Either way you all seem to treat your own better than the bandit folks I seen seem to."

Bennie leaned his back against the glass and crossed his arms over his chest. "Historically, we've only ever really been bandits in name," he said. "We're outlaws like the rest of them, but Pixie never let us take a job that she felt was unjust. Unlike many the rest of the scum out there, we actually do practice discretion and we never prey on the weak. But what really separates us, as you've pointed out, is that we are more than just a bandit crew. Groups like Wilkes-Vines will call themselves 'families', but I don't reckon they know the meaning of the word."

The big man smiled. "I have the brains to lead a solid crew, but I'm not so sure I can run a family the way Pixie could," he told her. "I'm going to be counting y'all to help me out. If you guys want this place to feel like home, you're going to have to make it that way. Afterall, I don't have a huge motherly bossum to smother your faces in like the old Captain does." He laughed, sadly.

"Nope, that's where I come in apparently." Gale scoffed, bumping her fist against her chest.

Well it was all nice to hear at least. Gale wasn't one for startin' fights with folks who weren't askin' for it. never mind that she wasn't jumping for joy at the thought that she might have to actually kill someone if she stayed here. Well weren't like she was a little girl, she knew what she was signing up for and now there were actual little girls who needed watching out for.

Besides she wasn't the one in need of an ear right now. This was some proper wise woman training right here.

"I reckon it could be easy enough, most here joined up cus they didn't have no home left." Gale had gone and found herself an empty chair closer to Bennie since they were talking proper now and started strumming a chord or two absentmindedly.

"That was the case for most of the old guard as well," Bennie started. "My family's been dead a long time. Pixie and Lilith were orphans from birth. Sprout's biological parents were murdered when he was a toddler. The list goes on." He frowned and looked down at his feet. "I was gone a long time, but I consider many of the Maidens who died recently to be my brothers. We made mistakes... a lot of them, and I don't intend to repeat them." Lifting his head, he met Gale's gaze. "I'll keep this new family alive with everything that I've got. I promise you that. No one will be safe... not in this line of work, but we'll survive no matter what."

"That tends to be the chief's job." Gale gave a little sad eyed smile. He was hurtin' and she didn't have a freakin' clue for what she could say to clear that kind of thing up. Mama Colburn always made it look so easy! Welp, she could always follow Mama Colburn's most serious piece of advice.

'When in doubt, you gotta go balls out, kiddo.'

"Y'know chief I don't claim to know much about the bandit way of doin' things, and I aint gunna try and force out people's stories before there ready. But if this is what I seen of being top man of the caravan... well bein' chief kinda sucks half the time. 'Cept the chief didn't have to do stuff on his own really; just make it look like he did." She carried on playing her little tune for a sec. "I'm around I guess is what I'm sayin'." Gale shrugged, only a little aware of how stupid this may have sounded to a domer. "Every veteran's gotta start somewhere right?"

Bennie chuckled. "I appreciate the help, Gale, I do," he said with a weak smile. You're a good kid. A lot of y'all are. You may get rough around the edges if you stick around long enough, but try not to lose that glow of yours. It's what'll separate you from the real scum."

"Aaw shucks!" Gale bobbed her head in exaggerated bashfulness. "Well let's see how the future goes when we get there I guess, huh? Little edge can do you some good... besides, not like I signed up for a lifelong shift."

"Who knows, maybe the whole thing will be a lot more exciting than you could ever hope to let go of," he said with an exaggerated shrug. "Or maybe you'll find the man of your dreams. A swashbuckling romeo who steals your heart away. There's nothing like constant danger to keep you in the arms of your lover every chance you get, trust me."

"Well nobody mentioned those parts!" Gale cheered, starting to play the intro to 'Blue on Black'.

There was a little more hurt in him there. Gale's best guess was he lost somebody along the way there. Odds were the chief was so used to everybody knowin' everybody's business he forgot how to handle newcomers sometimes, like an in joke that worked its way into everyday it had gotten so old.

"Guess we'll see. Plenty of stories still to get made."

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Opting to leave the motorcycle in a storage shed at the motel, Lilith thought it would be a good idea for her to get a feel for the streets on foot. Plus, she didn't really want to entertain the prospect of her only ride out of the place getting jacked. There must not have been many guests where she was staying, she had never known any other place that brought breakfast to her in the morning. Maybe that was normal for Frostfall? Or maybe the owner was just a nice guy, she hadn't figured that out yet.

Lilith had prepared herself for leaving the confines of her toasty room, but she didn't think she'd ever get used to just how piercing the cold was. At least there was no wind, she could be thankful for that much. A cigarette hanging loosely from her lips, her face reddened by the cold, she pulled her cloak tighter around herself, teeth chattering as her uneven breathing showed in the air.

New clothes were definitely at the top of today's agenda. From what she could tell, there was nothing like that nearby, she'd have to venture deeper into the city, which didn't seem the most pleasant of prospects, if last night had been any indication. She hadn't heard any explosions yet though, so that was a good sign, right?

'It's still early yet, Lily.'

After an hour or so of walking, the girl had stumbled into what appeared to be a market district, or at least that's what she hoped it was. There were a number of of wooden stalls set up, but this was... different. There were none of the trinkets you'd usually see at a market, most of the stalls had guns on display, or the most basic of foodstuffs, bread, rice, maybe a chicken or two, but vegetables other than potatoes seemed non-existent. As she walked amongst the stalls, trying her best to wring some warmth into her hands, she noticed the general atmosphere was different from the previous night. Last night was chaotic, violent, but alive.

Now the whole place just felt depressing. The dour faces of the citizens, everyone seemed so guarded. Lilith made a mental note to ask someone about what had happened in the city, maybe she'd go to the bar from last night and ask the bartender who had given her directions. A drink of whiskey wouldn't hurt either. Stopping at one stall, Lilith sighed in relief as her eyes fell upon several items of clothing.


The woman had always thought Florian dressed as he did because he was a priest, vow of poverty or whatever, but it was starting to look like Frostfall fashion in general was more... function, over form. The stall owner was an impressively ugly middle aged man, with several scars decorating his face, his one good eye not moving from Lilith as she browsed through several piles and hanging racks.

Pulling a khaki green coat off a rack, Lilith cooed as she stroked the soft fur lining. Tossing off her cloak, she slipped into the surprisingly heavy thing, feeling the difference almost immediately. "Sweet Jesus, that's the stuff." The girl was almost giddy as the feeling began to return to her fingers. Leaving the coat on, much to the apparent dismay of the stall owner, Lilith continued to shuffle through the clothing, in the end deciding on a couple of thick jumpers, a few pairs of thick socks, and a new pair of gloves. Kicking off her own boots, she tried on a pair of fur lined leather boots. A bit snug, but at least she would be able to feel her toes. Placing them on the counter, next to the pile of other things she had picked out, Lilith bit her bottom lip in thought as she did one last sweep of the place.

"Oh!" The girl cooed as she picked up a strange white hat. It was fur lined, with two big flaps, one on either side. They reminded her of floppy dog ears. Plopping it on her head, she chuckled as the 'floppy dog ears' covered her own. "Heh, cute." Putting it on the pile with the rest, she fumbled around with her bag of carbon as she tried to recall the words. Laughing nervously as the stall owner flipped through her items, nodding at the coat Lilith had decided not to remove. He mumbled to the girl, his words unfamiliar.

"Okay err." Handing the man several small pieces of carbon, his eyes widened.

"Nyet." He proceeded to mumble several unknown words to the girl.

"Is... Is everything okay? Ermm..." She thought for a second tapping her fingers to her forehead as she tried to remember her lessons. "[Is good? Much price, yes?]"

Sighing in exasperation, the man leaned forward, and placed the carbon on the counter, speaking slowly as he pushed the stones towards her. "[Too much.]" She managed to pick out.

"Ohhhhhhhhh" Lilith laughed nervously. "I'm sorry, err, izvinite." Shuffling through the bag, she looked for the smallest piece, holding it out to the man. Nodding his head, the man sighed as he took the small piece from the girl. Lilith placed the returned stones back in the bag.

'All this for just that?!' The girl had never gotten a batter deal before. 'Wait, wait, does that mean the booze is cheap too? What about the smokes?!'

Stuffing her newly purchased items in her bag, except for the dog-eared hat that was now sitting on her head, the girl thanked the stall owner, who mumbled unenthusiastically in response. "Friendly guy." She chuckled as started to walk out of the stall, not paying attention to the path ahead of her as she lit up a cigarette.

"Oh! Sorry!" She called out as she bumped into a rather skinny looking youth and his friend with a very bad haircut. The pair of them were wearing red scarves with an emblem that looked like wings embroidered on them. "Err, shit what was the word, errr, ah,izvinite!"

Leering down at her with a look of disgust, the man spat something at her in the native tongue.

'Cyka? Wait, I know that word! What was it again?' Her face hardened as the answer came to her.

Taking a step back from the man and his friend with an with the unflattering haircut, Lilith chuckled nervously. "Like I said, I'm sorry."

The skinny one laughed derisively. "Cyka! *****, what is that? You think this is joke?" He pointed at the girl's neck.

"What? Lilith looked down at her own red scarf, the white heart clearly visible. "No, see, this was a gift." She gently tugged at it.

"*****! You make fun of us?!" He quickly stepped forward, his fingers lashing out as he attempted to snatch at Lilith's scarf.

The woman slapped the man's hand away from her. "Whoa, whoa, back the fuck off, ****." Lilith warned, which would have probably been more intimidating if she weren't wearing the dog-eared hat.

'First day, Lilith, you couldn't even stay out of trouble for the first fucking day.' Taking a few more steps backward, the girl fought the urge to reach for her pistol. The last thing she wanted to do was start a gunfight in such a public area.

"Where you going *****? We not done with you yet." The skinny man snorted, his companion chuckling something in Northern. "Maybe Sergei is right, you make fun of Beijic? Maybe we teach you lesson, *****." The pair began to walk slowly towards Lilith.

Lilith's frosty breath began to quicken as her heart pounded. "I said back off!" The girl quickly glanced around her, hoping to catch someone's eye. All the stall owners turned their gazes downward, minding their own business.

'So that's how it is, huh? Of course you'd piss off the local thugs Lily, that's just your fucking luck lately, isn't it?'

She could just run, try to lose them, and in any other city she would have, but she didn't know Frostfall nearly well enough to know that wouldn't corner herself, or worse, bump into more of these pricks.

"Ah shit." Lilith muttered under her breath as she spat out her cigarette. Resigned to the situation, a sinister smirk curled the girl's lips. "You wanna fuck with me, you ugly cunts?" She tossed her backpack to the ground.

The pair were taken aback for a moment before they cried out with laughter. "Little girl thinks she is hot shit?" The skinny one scoffed. "You think you fight me?" He shook his head incredulously.

"Of course not, don't be silly." Lilith unbuttoned her new coat, sliding it off her shoulders. 'Oh fuck me, it's freezing!' Disguising the fact she was screaming on the inside, the woman tossed her new coat on top of her backpack, her scarf now on full display. "Both of you."

The faces of the men hardened, their eyes drawn downwards as they took note of the girl's newly revealed holster. "Is big gun for such small girl." The skinny one chuckled as began to walk forward. He was just a few steps out of Lilith's reach now, and moving closer.

"I don't waste bullets on pussies." Lilith sneered as she rolled up the sleeves of her shirt. "Let's see how fucking funny I am when your teeth are all over the ground." He was close now, looming over her, his beady little eyes locked to her's. Exhaling slowly through pursed lips, she blew a plume of steam into Skinny Guy's face. "Cyka."

Spoiler

This man was a brawler at best, that much was evident as soon as threw the first punch. Lilith swerved around the attack easily enough, delivering a swift knee to the man's gut before stepping backwards, a smug smile on her face as she hopped gently on her feet.

"Cyka!" The man choked as she clutched at his stomach before lunging forward, his arms held apart in attempt to grapple the girl.

Shifting her stance, she dug a heel in the ground, pushing both her arms outwards, she swatted the man's arms away, kicking one of his feet from under him, he fell to one knee before Lilith delivered a swift right hook across the man's jaw, sending him sprawling backwards as he tried to get to his feet. Spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground, he shouted at his comrade. Bad Haircut fumbled for the weapon presumably tucked away in the back of his trousers, Lilith quickly closed the gap, just as the pistol was brought to bare, she grabbed the barrel of the weapon with her right hand, pointing it away from her as she continued with her forward momentum. Twisting the man's arm as she moved behind him, he relinquished his grip of the weapon before Lilith span around and pushed him away from her.

As Bad Haircut staggered forward, Lilith nonchalantly ejected the magazine of the pistol, ejecting the round in the chamber as she pulled back the slide before tossing the weapon over her shoulder.

These guys couldn't have been any older than her, bottom rung of the ladder for sure. Nothing more than thugs lucky enough to get into a bandit family, if their scarves were anything to go by.

"Your employers need higher standards." Lilith grunted, kicking Skinny Guy in the face as he reached for his own weapon, knocking him out cold. "2/10, would not get harassed by again." The girl chuckled as Bad Haircut pulled a knife, his expression a mixture of anger and apprehension. "Hey, if some beautiful girl from the South kung fu'd the shit outta my gun, I'd be a little nervous too." Lilith shrugged her shoulders. "So how about we call it a draw, and we can be on our separate ways?" She smiled as she took a step backwards towards her backpack. Did he even understand a word she was saying?

Just as it looked like he might take her up on her offer, the sound of shoes hitting concrete drew closer just before a group of four men, all wearing red scarves, and angry faces came running around the corner behind Bad Haircut.

"Oh, you are fucking shitting me." Lilith laughed nervously.

 

[Fappy]

"Very well, My Lady, have a pleasant evening."

Elizabeth put on a brave face and nodded to him.

"Thank you for permitting the Commander and myself to attend such a prestigious event.

Dio scoffed. "Oh, don't pretend this wasn't a complete waste of time," he said with a curious grin on his face. "Then again, I suppose watching a bunch of rich fools paying lip service to a teenager isn't without its own special charm. No offence, M'lady."

"None taken," Elizabeth replied, unconvincingly.

"You two should get some rest," he said to the soldiers. "Tomorrow is the day you should be looking forward to. I want you to be the personification of Feroxi masculinity." He told Asad. "And you, Tsubaki... you just have to be your normal, radiant self, of course."

Tsubaki furrowed her brow. "Yes, M'lord," she said.

"Now," Dio said as he clapped his hands together, "it is time we took our leave. Have a good night, you two."

Elizabeth gave Asad one last desperate glance before falling in behind Dio.

Ignoring the awkwardness of what just transpired, Tsubaki turned to Asad. "I was going to stop by the medical wing and see if Jun was ready to be checked out," she said. "You want to come with me and maybe we can order in food? I told Bryan he could stay at my place until he and Jun recovered. I was hoping he'd look after him... you know, give him something to do while he's on the bench."

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************

"Fuck," Bonnie muttered under her breath. "Were you followed?"

Carlos shook his head and crossed over to the other side of the small room. "No," Carlos said simply.

"God dammit, if you sold---"

"Shut the fuck up," Pixie snapped. "We can point fingers later."

Carlos cracked the door open. The four men hadn't entered the bar yet. "We have maybe fifteen seconds," Carlos said.

"Not enough time," Pixie muttered as she took her place behind him.

"Close the door!" Bonnie insisted. "They'll see us!"

"What if they come lookin' in here?" Pixie argued. "I ain't gettin' cornered, fuck that." And with that, Pixie was out the door and approaching the bar.

Bonnie looked like she was about to go after her but stopped when Carlos put a hand on her shoulder. "No, you stay here," he whispered. "We'll handle this."

"What about the deal?!" Bonnie asked.

He sighed. "Talk to Contessa," he said. "Have her invite Meredith to the party tonight."

"Are you nuts?!"

"Just do it," Carlos told her. "She'll agree to it." Before Bonnie could protest once more, Carlos was already heading out the door.

Cam and Aesop were surprised to see Pixie at the bar again so soon. Cam knew something was wrong as soon as she saw her face. "What's up?" she whispered as Pixie took her seat next to them.

"Aesop," Pixie said, ignoring her question, "follow Carlos outside for a smoke, now."

When he looked, Aesop could see Carlos was already halfway out the door.

 

[The Funslinger]

"hey buddy, it's me. Mind if I come in?"

A long silence followed before Sprout finally replied. "Y-yeah," he mumbled into his pillow.

Pushing the door open, Ruffles came in. Sitting down on the end of the kid's bed, he looked at him. "So obviously you heard what happened?"

Sprout wiped the tears from his eyes and nodded his head. Sitting up in bed, her held his pillow close to his chest. "Lily's gone," he said.

Ruffles nodded. Pulling a beer from its plastic ring, he popped the top and motioned for Sprout to help himself to one.

"Do you understand why she left?" He knew he knew, but he wanted to make sure that Sprout had accepted the validity of Lilith's reasons for leaving.

"Florian's been MIA for awhile," Sprout replied. "She went lookin' fer 'im. B-but couldn' she take me with 'er?!" He eye-balled the beer but didn't reach for one.

"Lots of reasons," Ruffles replied. "For starters, it wasn't so long ago you got shot. And I know you're fine and up and about now, but she watched that happen. You know, to her, it's probably unbearable to think of you possibly being like that again. And more importantly, saving Florian is important to Lilith in particular, right? I've known her just as long as you, so I think I'm on base when I say she'd feel guilty dragging any of us into this. Bennie gave her plenty of sound reasons why we can't go after him, and she knows."

Sprout bit his bottom lip. "Ruffles... Lily said that we'd never be apart again," he wimpered. "She promised me she'd always be by my side! Wh-why would she lie to me like that?! She'd never lie to me! Sh-she knew how much it hurt to watch Ma' leave, so why did she do the same?!" He tossed the pillow across the room in frustration. "She's jus'a selfish *****, jus' like Ma'!"

"Don't you fucking say that," Ruffles snapped. "Yeah, Lilith promised, and yeah, she had to break her promise, but that's fucking life for us. Asking her to leave someone she cares about behind is what's goddamn selfish, here. And your mom. Jesus, Sprout, she's doing the shit she's doing to make sure we don't have to live short, terrified lives of sleeping with one eye open. So yeah, she's selfish and scared, and she's running away from her shit. But if it were you in her situation... wouldn't you be?"

Sprout bowed his head in shame and wimpered like a wounded puppy. He knew how hypocritical and weak he was acting, but he just couldn't help it. He felt so powerless. So weak. He knew that they were just doing what they thought was right, but still...

She promised...

The boy fought hard to meet Ruffle's gaze. "Sh-she... Lilith promsied she'd never leave without sayin' goodbye to me," he said in as clear a voice as he could. "When she left with Cranston ta' take care of Gorgon, she left without sayin' goodbye. She almost died, Ruffles. What if she dies in Frostfall now? There's so much I would 'ave wanted ta' say to her before that happened. She can' die... she can' leave me alone..."

"If she'd stayed to say goodbye, I'm not sure she could have gone at all, though," said Ruffles sadly.

"Now come on," he said, forcing a smile. "Have a drink with me. Only seems like yesterday we'd have told you off for drinking with the crew."

Sprout frowned and reached out for a beer. After popping the top off he took a liberal swig and wiped his lips with his sleeve. After a short silence, Sprout sighed. "An' yer leavin' too," he whispered.

Ruffles sighed, and took a long drink. "Yeah, I know," he muttered. "But it's time I started thinking of the family I was given, and not the one I chose. Not that it's much consolation, but I am coming back. I'll just... be a few months."

Sprout didn't say anything to that. Instead, he continued to drink his beer in silence. It appeared he'd run out of words.

Ruffles stared at his feet. "So... do you hate me, too?"

"No," Sprout said. "I jus'... I don' wanna be all alone."

"You won't be," said Ruffles. "Lilith'll be back before you know it. And Bennie's here. He won't tell you himself, but he needs you, Sprout. Like hell."

"I know he does," Sprout admitted. "I've gotta help 'im hold the fort until Ma' gets back. Sh-she has ta' come back, right?"

Ruffles grinned. "Ain't no Iron Maidens without the Bandit Queen, am I right? And hey, if she takes too long, I'll cut off her hot water."

Sprout laughed. "She almost killed you last time. Don' reckon that's a good idea," he warned.

"Hey, don't forget, I have Allie to blame it on now," he replied, finishing his beer. "No way she can stay mad at a tiny, even angrier version of herself."

"If that was what Ma' was like when she was a kid..." Sprout whistled. "Glad I wasn' alive yet." He finished his beer after another swig. "Thanks, Ruffles."

"No problem, buddy," he said, getting up. "It'll get easier, trust me. Now, I gotta go find Allie and make her learn about the joys of plumbing. See ya, man." With that, he turned and headed out, leaving the four untouched beers on Sprout's bed.

 

[Dogmatic99]

Spoiler: Music

["So today looks like it's going to be interesting."] Vasa mused, blowing lightly on the steaming black coffee he was holding before him.

The tower was beginning to shape up at last. Well, the floors that were still habitable. A large chunk was still closed off where Erik had blown a massive hole in the side of it. Finding contractors up to the task was proving trickier than anticipated. The bandit horde may have had some teething pains as they got used to the idea of being the ones in charge of a regime but slowly and surely those who were up to the challenge stepped forward. Of course it would take more time and effort to nurture the talents of a bunch of bloodthirsty criminals into civic servants. For now at least most were content to work on carving out their own small business fronts and territories while fringe elements explored the stranger elements of the ivory tower.

It seemed Erik had had a point. Not that Vasa could let him know that, he'd never hear the end of it.

["Well any day after a bombing is always going to be full of treats and fun conversations."] Erik grumbled. He never was a morning person. Why the hell Vas had invited him to such an early meeting was beyond him.

Breakfast went on and as far as Erik could tell he was hear to serve as resident bureaucrat. A licence in law put to good use indeed! Most of it was mundane stuff, deeds, licencing blah blah blah. All of it pretty pointless. Moving higher ranking members into legitimate business and putting a civilized face on the savage image they'd been parading around for so long. Couldn't just put your gun down, had to pretend it wasn't even there.

Erik's brow furrowed as he scanned over more of the papers, he recognised a lot of these names. How many of them were parts of Sergai's crews? Little bastards were scooping up more and more carbon intake.

["So I took the liberty of upping the bounty on Fang."] Vasa said, buttering himself some toast.

["Who?"]

["Our masked friend who's been giving you the run around. After last night it seemed appropriate."] Vasa had gotten word a while ago about Erik's close encounter with him a few days ago. Even he was surprised to hear he survived the trap.

["The bombing wasn't him, Vas. I'm sure of that."] Erik reached for a jug of orange juice and poured himself a glass. ["It was too loud and messy. This one prefers to work quiet and he doesn't kill, he's fucked up a few times trying not to if I'm right."]

'Hell, he had the chance to off me back there.' Not something Erik remembered fondly.

["I know. But he's getting to be more than that now. He's making us look weak and exciting the Boykov loyalists."] Vasa allowed himself a small snort of derision. It was a ridiculous idea, there were no nobles left in Frostfall to be loyal to. Every last Boykov had been put to the wall or worse. These were the acts of human beings simply too stubborn to accept the change that had already overtaken them. Who lacked the decency to be left behind with dignity.

["You think they might kick off another war?"] Erik pondered.

["No, Erik. I think they'll give us sport."]

Erik stayed quiet. 'The ways of our glorious people.'

================================================================================================

Spoiler: More Music

["This is some pretty good stuff here."] Florian turned the assault rifle around in his hands.

["Jesus Christ!"] Isaac nearly leaped out of his skin. ["Where do you even come from?"] He took a moment to compose himself, looking around like a frightened rabbit. ["Look I got you the info you wanted, are we quit now? If anyone finds out about this she's gunna have my nuts on a platter."]

The full faced breather mask hid Florian's smirk. He'd forgotten how fun being in on a puppet master's plans could be when you were doing the ground work. Isaac had done a good job though, he should be able to pass the shipment details onto Irena and her new people (of the various new crews she was adopting into her care) would be able to take it from there. Just another racket to wrap up.

["Yeah I think we can call it-"] Florian was quickly cut off as the door to the back room flung open to reveal an out of breath teenager.

["Dude some lady's going crazy in the market she..."] He trailed off as he registered Florian's masked face looking blankly back at him. ["Holy crap it's the Fang!"]

He didn't get to say anything else as Florian lashed out with the butt of the rifle, slamming it into the poor lad's stomach and knocking all the air out of him and bringing him to his knees before he crumpled into a ball on the floor. This was clearly his first time taking a clubbing.

["Who the hell is the Fang?"] He asked, turning back to Isaac.

["Th- that's what people are calling you. Cussa the sign you left around the place..."] He stammered out, looking back and forth between Florian and his downed messenger.

'That's what they're calling me? Aw that is not the kind of nickname I was hoping for.' Florian's own disappointment would have to wait though as people started calling up to Isaac's office and the sound of footsteps drew closer. Looked like someone had heard the call. Guess he had to make another quick exit. First though! He shouldered the rifle and advanced on Isaac.

["What... what are you doing?"]

["Gotta make it look good."]

["No you don't have'ta-"] And then Isaac was unconscious! He would be that way for longer than he liked.

A pair of guards were rushing into the room just as Florian scrambled down the fire escape. Not fast enough though as he heard the call for backup going out behind him and signs of others coming out of the warehouse down below trying to cut him off. He hit the ground running, trying to keep as much distance between him and them as possible, hopefully he could lose them in the market stalls. That wasn't going to be so easy though as it looked like he was being flanked, wait, no.

Was something else going on? He slowed down just enough to see the aftermath of a fight and a lone blonde figure standing victorious and braving the elements. Funny, from the back they almost looked like...

'No that's stupid.' Except as he got closer and picked up more details. 'Couldn't be.'

Some big lugs were shouting something and looking to start trouble, though with who Florian couldn't say. That was when blondie turned to see her oncoming friends.

"Oh, you are fucking shitting me."
["Oh, you are fucking shitting me."]

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

As Jake left Axel's room, Amy did a commendable job of pretending that she hadn't been eavesdropping from the outside. When the coast was clear, she knocked lightly before entering.

"Hey." she greeted, soberly, taking note first of Axel, then of the can's of beer on the bed. "You've got to start inviting me to these parties of your's, you know."

She went and sat beside him on the bed, easing one of the cans out of it's plastic ring. Noticing just how miserable Axel looked close up, Amy felt a surge of unhelpful yet thoroughly sincere feelings that she just couldn't quite hold back.

"It'll be okay." she said, looking to reassure him as she took his hand.

Sprout nodded, looking down at her hand as she took his. "Yeah," he said. "I really hope so." Though it looked like he had a million things to say, it was clear he couldn't find the words to express himself.

"Lilith knows what she's doing..." Amy continued, passing Axel a second can before opening her own. "And, believe it or not, she still needs you."

Sprout laughed bitterly. "Needs me?" he repeated before popping open the top of the can. "Fer what? How can I help when I'm here?!"

"Easy." Amy relied, deadly serious. "By making sure she's still got something to come back to. You need to get this place back on it's feet, and give the people here something they can all believe in again; so, when Lilith comes back, and she is coming back, she'll know she's coming back home."

Spoiler

Reaching out, Amy lightly stroked the line of Axel's jaw, turning his head around to face hers, and looked right in his eyes.

"It sucks being left behind. Believe me, I know it does. But it doesn't make you helpless..." Amy leaned forward, and their lips touched for just a second. "and you know you're not alone."

Sprout's whole body quivered when their lips parted. Gazing into her eyes, he nodded slowly. "Why?" he suddenly asked. "Wh-why are you bein' so nice ta' me, Amy? I've seen the looks you give Bennie an' I know you ain't really gettin' along with anyone else in the crew..." He furrowed his brow. "I-I-I know I may be treadin' old ground here but... I dunno... I jus' don' know what a girl like you could see in me."

Did he really believe what he was saying or was he just afraid? Sprout wasn't so ignorant to his own feelings that he could trick himself like that. Before he'd even finished saying it, he had known he was just talking out of his ass, trying desperately to grasp the real issue at hand. He was a lot like his mother in that regard: finding it impossible to lie to himself, but going ahead and doing it anyway.

"Well, it's not your confidence, that's for sure." Amy joked, kissing him again, before fixing her serious gaze on him again.

"You're... genuine Ax. I've grown up with liars, and schemers, and bullies. Sometimes it feels like everyone I've ever met wanted to use me for something, and they either treated me like dirt, or like they were doing me a favour, or just pretended none of it was business and they couldn't see how pathetic they were. You... You don't look at me and think about what you can get out of me, but rather what you can do to deserve me, and that places a higher value on me than all their money and glamour ever did."

She put her drink down and kissed him again, deeply, warmly, her hand caressing his chest.

"Just tell me to stop, if this isn't what you want." she crooned, her lips travelling down the side of his neck, his nose full of the smell of her hair. "But if you don't, then don't think about Bennie or anyone else. I want you tonight. Just you."

As she began to kiss his neck the thought of stopping her came and went. The slight tickle of her lips on his flesh, her soothing voice and her intoxicating smell overwhelmed him. Unsure of what to do, he put his drink on the night stand and nervously ran his fingers through her hair. "I-I-I, uh..." he muttered. Weren't they supposed to take it slow? "I-I don' know what to do..."

"It's alright, I've got it covered." Amy told him, coming back up to face him again. Gently, she moved closer, wrapping her legs around Axel's waist, sitting in his lap. Then she took hold of both of his hands, and guided them, onto her legs at first, then to her waist, before continuing up to her chest.

"Just follow my lead for now, okay?" she gasped, kissing him all the while. "I'll show you the way." Kissing him again, Amy lightly nipped at Axel's bottom lip as they parted, smiling at him.

"First things first." she said, dismounting. "Lock the door."

Sprout's eyes were practically bulging out of his head before Amy suddenly got off him. "Uh-uh, yes ma'am," he chirped as he rolled off the edge of the bed and locked the door. Turning back around to face her, he finally got a good look at the whole package. She was truly stunning. As his blood began to leave his brain, so too did his reservations. He was powerless to stop it now.

She was in control.

Smiling, Amy crossed the room, effortlessly shedding her clothes as she did so. She was down to just her underwear by the time she reached Axel. Opening his shirt with one hand, with the other Amy held his face, all the while just smiling at him. Nothing more needed to be said. When that was done, she hooked her fingers inside his belt and lead him, slowly, back towards the bed.

The rest was a learning curve, of course. However, she'd discovered an attentive lover in Axel. He rarely needed to be walked through something twice before he had the hang of it. What's more, once the two of them had been, both physically and metaphorically, stripped of all barriers, her partners enthusiasm seemed to know no limits. Amy certainly wasn't faking when, for the third and final time, she arched her back and shuddered, gasping as her hands raked his chest. Exhausted, the two collapsed in a naked heap, unsure who's limbs were who's, and long past caring.

"Do you want to say something?" Amy opened, tentatively, after they had lay there a while, Her fingers tracing the bright sheen that framed the silhouette of Axel's form in the darkness.

Amy couldn't see Sprout's enthusiastic smile in the darkness, but she could tell it was there. "Yer jus' beggin' me ta' kill the mood," he whispered with a light chuckle. After a small peck on the lips, Sprout put his hand on the back of Amy's head and lifted his chin, letting her nuzzle the side of his neck. "Yer... incredible, Amy."

He didn't know what else to say. His world had been thoroughly blown.

In more ways than one!

"Oh, I know." Amy replied, giggling though she was still somewhat out of breath. "So are you."

It wasn't as if this was the first time she'd enjoyed sex. Even when it was work, Amy had found that she had a good time more often than not. Lying with Axel though, in this moment, she felt something that she could honestly say was new to her... she felt safe.

The Iron Maiden's would need Axel The Man soon enough, she knew, but for now at least, for the next few, short hours, he was all hers.

 

[Terratina.]

Asad's eyes lingered on Elizabeth as she reluctantly followed after Dio.

'Take care of yourself, kid.' He nodded at the girl, a slight sadness to his smile.

"You want to come with me and maybe we can order in food? I told Bryan he could stay at my place until he and Jun recovered. I was hoping he'd look after him... you know, give him something to do while he's on the bench."

Turning his attention to Tsubaki, Asad clapped his hands together. "Pizza. We should totally get pizza." He grinned. "I've eaten so much fancy crap lately, I gotta eat some junk before I start talking like they do." He nodded towards where Elizabeth and Basilio left.

"Oh, my poor Major," Tsubaki mocked him, mimicking an offended noble woman. "Sure, pizza sounds good to me. I imagine we should probably pick up some liquor for Bryan. You drank all mine."

"Sure, why not." He pulled loose his bowtie and undid the top button of his shirt before tucking his hands into his trouser pockets. "Feels like forever since we've all been in the same room."

Tsubaki pursed her lips, suppressing a grin. "You'll be wishing it actually was forever in a few minutes here, trust me," she told him.

20 Minutes Later...​

After two swift knocks on the door, Tsubaki called out to Jun. "Moon, it's Saburo and Harel," she announced. "May we come in?"

"Yes." Jun answered. He tried to tell himself that their visit would at least give him a small reprieve from the never-ending haze of boredom that had filled the days ever since the incident. However, that wouldn't brush away the fact that the whole thing was going to be annoying. Just great.

Opening the door, Asad and Tsubaki entered the room, still chuckling from her last comment.

"It won't be so bad." He mumbled to the woman as he turned his attention to Jun.

He didn't think he'd ever seen such a miserable creature in all his life.

"Hey Jun, how you feeling? A lot better since Bryan left, I imagine?"

"Fine." Jun replied and left it at that.

"Told you," Tsubaki whispered to Asad as she took her place at the foot of his bed. Resting her hands on the metal footboard, Tsubaki tapped her fingers along the aluminum tube and sighed. "Look Jun, I know you don't like people helping you out, but we're your team. We're your friends. I'm making arrangements to get you out of this bed tonight. You'll be staying at my apartment until you recover." She paused for a moment before adding, "Is that okay with you?"

The temptation to correct on the 'friends' front was immense but if she wanted to continue to fool herself with that matter, that was on her. Belief didn't make things so.

Regardless, Jun looked down at the hospital bed, the nearest thing to a metal cage in the dull white room. It really didn't seem like he had a choice in the matter, still at least he would be out of the damn hospital. On the other hand... No, enough thinking.

"It is fine." Jun said as he looked back up at the other two soldiers. If she was just doing this to prove something, well, she would end up disappointed.

"We're gonna grab some pizza on the way back to Tsu's, I know you like pizza." Asad smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Tsubaki sighed in anticipation of Jun's pessimistic one-liner.

"Too greasy." Jun sighed and shook his head as the image of meat sliding off a slice and taking the rest of the stringy cheese and vegetables with it entered his mind.

Asad pouted in mock hurt. "Well fine then, more for me." He nudged Tsubaki with his elbow. "See, I told it would be great to see him again."

Tsubaki rolled her eyes. "Whatever, we'll force it down your throat if we have to," she told him, staring daggers into the crippled soldier. Turning to face Asad, Tsubaki gestured towards the door. "Let's get the paperwork over with. I'm starving."

Jun simply folded his arms as best as he could and glared back. It wasn't worth it.

"Oh cheer the fuck up Jun." Asad chuckled. "Surely anywhere is better than here?" He started for the door. "Come on Tsu, I imagine they'll need your signature."

"Coming," she huffed, making sure not to give Jun another look before leaving the room.

Asshole.

Jun followed while trying to decide which was worse: being stuck in a hospital room or putting up with that for the remainder of the three months. Hard call.

***​

After numerous attempts, Maria finally got the damn disobedient toilet to flush. She sighed, out of all the times the toilet could've misfunctioned it had to be now, and that was just the tip of the iceberg regarding Maidens and problems. Apparently a certain blonde known for their good fortune had driven off without as much as a goodbye. Well that was just dandy. The doctor washed and dried her hands then shut the bathroom door with a slam. Marching down the Iron Maiden's various corridors with purpose, she eventually found exactly the person she was looking for: Ruffles.

"First off, there's a toilet that needs fixing." Maria said, hands on hips, "Secondly, where the hell has Lilith gone?"

 

[The Funslinger]

"First off, there's a toilet that needs fixing." Maria said, hands on hips, "Secondly, where the hell has Lilith gone?"

Ruffles raised an eyebrow. "Hello ta you too, massah. I git right on fixin' dat der toilet. Doan be whippin' tired ol' Ruffles, massah."

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Spoiler

"They fuckin' started it!" Lilith gestured at Skinny Guy and Bad Haircut, the flaps on her hat flopping wildly as she shook her head. "Do I look like the kind of girl who walks around causing trouble?!" She glanced down at Skinny Guy, moaning painfully as he slowly regained consciousness. "Mate, you're not helping!" Lilith muttered through gritted teeth as she nudged the man with her foot.

"I do not want to throw the fuck down with your entire fucking gang, you get it?!" The frustrated girl held her hands out. "Do any of you understand me?" The girl stepped back again, really resisting the urge to pull out her revolver.

'Why the fuck is one of them wearing a gas mask? This city is fucking weird.'

It was her! It was actually Lilith! Was he dreaming again? This should not have been happening! This was bad, very bad, very very bad.

What was he to do? 'Obvious!'

Florian spun on his heel and grabbed onto the wares of the nearest stall, pulling them down right in the way of the men following. It wouldn't keep them for long, he couldn't stop.

"We need to get out of here!" He yelled at Lilith through the mask. he was about to place a hand on her shoulder and guide her on her way but opted to kick the gut of some crappy haircut that was trying to grab out at her from the floor.

There was more yelling now. They were just pissing people off now, Bejics aside.

"What?" Lilith raised her hands guardedly as Gas Mask took out Bad Haircut.

'He's not wearing a scarf like the others.'

"What the bloody hell is wrong with people in this damn city?" Lilith growled, kicking Skinny Guy in the face as he roused enough to try and grab his pistol.

"It's the cold isn't it?" The girl half chuckled and shivered as she rubbed her bare forearms.

'Now is not the time!' Is not what he said in a hard fought moment of restraint. now wasn't the time to bicker either.

"This way." Florian nudged Lil on by the arm as he unslung the rifle he'd taken from Isaac and brought it to bare on his pursuers as if he were about to open up on covering fire. Damn thing wasn't loaded but hopefully they didn't know that. It was enough to give them pause for thought at least as they scattered and ducked behind stalls.

"Stay near me, we need to get off the street." He said to her over his shoulder, scanning the cramped stalls, crouching to scoop up the fallen pistol.

"Don't push!" Lilith snapped at the masked man as he pushed by her, quickly sweeping up her coat and backpack as she ran after him, quickly stuffing her arms into the sleeves of her coat as they rounded a corner. "Where are we going?" The girl panted, a tinge of concern in her voice as she slung her backpack over her shoulders.

If the guy's accent was anything to go by, he was definitely a native.

"We need to get you to shelter." He checked a corner. "Then out of here."

Not well enough! One of them was flanking, firing potshots as he tried to move from cover to cover, the threat of being ripped apart by rifle fire keeping him down. Florian returned fire with the pistol, aiming near the attacker's feet. He turned to keep an eye on Lilith just in time to see one had managed to sneak up on them, he was closing in fast with a large knife glinting in the morning light.

"Behind you!" Florian screamed, his eyes going wide behind the mask lenses. He couldn't get a clear shot...

As Lilith wondered why Gas Mask wasn't using his rifle, she swore under her breath as the useless twat across the street sent bullets flying everywhere but their intended target.

The masked man shouted a warning, Lilith turned to the sight of flashing metal as a goon slashed at her face with a knife. Gasping, the girl ducked under the attack in an less than elegant manner, swearing as her hat fell from her head. Not giving her attacker enough time to continue his attack, Lilith grabbed the man's knife hand, delivering a shift punch to the man's throat.

As he stumbled backwards, Lilith quickly pulled the revolver from her holster and put a bullet in the man's knee, stepping forward as he fell to the ground, howling in pain. Aiming down at the fucker's face, Lilith's expression hardened.

For a moment it looked like she was going to put a bullet between his eyes.

Flipping the gun around her hands, she grabbed her revolver by the barrel before bringing it down across the man's face, knocking him out.

"Wanker." The girl spat as she turned back towards the masked man, picking her hat off the ground, she dusted it off before plopping it back on her head. "Thanks, I didn't hear him coming." She smiled as she glanced over the man's shoulder. "Want me to take care of him too? You seem to be having some trouble." She winked, a cheeky smirk curling her lips.


Florian's heart was still in his throat as took it in. For a second he'd been sure that she'd kill him. There wasn't any time to think on what might have been though, a bad wound like that would slow the others down as they tended to their friend.

"No killing!" He roared, placing a hand on the top of her pistol and firmly pushing it down. "We only-" A shot here and there. "- need to surpress." He pointed on through a gap in the stalls. "You need to head that way, get to the far building and find the side street." They hadn't stopped moving through this, ducking and bobbing through the chase.

A bandit rounded a stall, levelling his gun at them. Once again Florian was forced to do some bandit clubbing as he swung the rifle out, knocking the gun from their hands and the bandit off balance. He didn't bother holding onto the rifle and let it go flying. With his now free hand he leaned forward and grabbed the bandit by the belt of his vest, hauling the guy over the stall and laying him out at Lilith's feet.


"No, you're coming with me, I have no idea where I'm going!" Lilith grunted as she stamped on the ankle of the thug at their feet, a sickening crack filling the air. Grabbing the masked man by the sleeve of his jacket, she pulled him after her as she swerved through the stalls and towards the alley. They were almost there when the biggest man she had seen since Bennie rushed to block their exit.

Coming to a halt, Lilith chuckled nervously as she looked up at the thug.

"Well aren't you the biggest ************ I ever did see." She bit her lip.

The man responded by spitting something at them in Northern.

Her eyes not leaving the huge man, Lilith leaned in towards her masked comrade. "What did he say?" She muttered.

"You don't want to know." Florian said flatly.

Neither one wasting any time the two northerners went straight to it. The bull-made-man swinging a sledgehammer in a wide sweep as he charged the two. Florian threw himself shoulder first into Lilith, knocking her out of the way of the hammer's crushing weight as it smashed the beams of a stall to pieces. Rolling to his feet and sorely missing the rifle, or something of weight, he ran in low striking right at the big fella's legs and strafing into his side as he worked in close where the hammer couldn't build such momentum.

His first punch landed home near the thug's kidney but was met with a solid wall of body armour and muscle. Not good. Biggy wasn't happy either as he kept turning and brought the shaft of the hammer down like a spear aimed at Florian's collar bone, sending him dancing back.

"You know..." Lilith cried out to the masked man from the other side of Mt. Tankass. "This would be a lot easier if you just let me put a bullet in him!" She squeaked as she jumped back to avoid one the thug's huge swings.

"We are not them!" Florian called over as the two circled their opponent and he got into the rhythm of the steady stream of attacks. It was getting easier now, this man was like fighting Erik all over again. If Erik was sloppy. They just had to last long enough to see an opening and... GOT IT!

Florian twisted himself around to the side of a downward swing and stepped in close, slamming an elbow into one of the out stretched arms of the hammerman, weakening his grip and following up with a short punch between his eyes, sending the brute reeling backwards and wide open.

"Pfft, you're no fun." Lilith pouted mockingly as the huge man reeled backwards towards her from the masked man's blow. Taking a step towards the thug, she lashed out with her foot, kicking him behind the knee. Wrapping her arms around Mt. Tankass' neck as he fell to one leg, Lilith squeaked with alarm as he vigorously tried to shake himself free.

"Fuck him up, Gimp Mask!" Lilith cried out as her floppy hat ears flailed wildly.

Easier said than done. With no other option but to finish things hard and fast before backup arrived, Florian reached into his coat and drew his own pistol with his free hand and very visibly levelled the pair of pistols at the goon's face, his eyes went wide as he froze like a deer in the headlights.

It paused him just long enough for Florian to flip the guns and swing both handles into his unfortunate temples like steel pincers. He dropped like a log.

"Come on, before the others arrive." He croaked, holstering his weapons and pulling Lilith on by her oversized sleeve as the two disappeared into the maze of the back streets.

They ran on for a good few minutes until they reached an easy to defend spot and Florian was satisfied that they weren't followed any further. Baking in rubber and his own breath once they came to a complete stop he tore the mask off and sent his hood falling back.

"What are you doing here, Lil?"

Lilith's eyes widened as she struggle to comprehend what she was seeing. "Florian?" She whispered. blinking a few times before the hint of a smile curled her lips for only a moment before her face hardened.

Slapping the man hard across the face, leaving a very visible pink imprint of her hand on his cheek, Lilith shoved Florian. "Thanks for fucking calling us, you useless fucking ****!"

This wasn't quite the reunion Florian was hoping for.

 

[Terratina.]

"Hello ta you too, massah. I git right on fixin' dat der toilet. Doan be whippin' tired ol' Ruffles, massah."

Maria couldn't help but give a smirk, however it faded away pretty quickly, "Next you'll be going on about your slave name and shit. Seriously though, where's Lilith gone?"

Ruffles sighed and turned to lean against the wall. Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a cigarette tin, from which he produced what was clearly a joint. Lighting it, he exhaled through the nose. "North," he said. "And you've known her long enough to know what's north."

The doctor gave a sigh as well, "Yeah, yeah. Coulda at least said goodbye."

She then shook her head in mock disgust, "Buncha sex maniacs here, is it always this rowdy?"

"That you're saying that at a time when Pixie isn't here is fucking hilarious," said Ruffles, taking another drag. Offering the joint to her, he said, "Lilith's gonna be fine, but it took us all by surprise. Hit Sprout harder than any of us."

Nonchalantly, Maria took it, took a drag and half-laughed, half-coughed. Afterwards, she passed the joint back while trying to recover, "Y-yeah, I've heard some stories."

Throat then cleared, she moved onto the other subject, "I'd expect that, poor kid. He doesn't seem to be able to catch a break, even though we seem to be in some sort of limbo here."

"Yeah, that's pretty much his life," said Ruffles. "Comes in waves, though. If we can get through this, hopefully we can be quiet for a while. And it'll be easier from him when Lilith comes back. With Florian." He fell silent and took a drag.

"Then I'll get to see what the legendary Florian is like." Maria chuckled, "Lilith's gonna get if he doesn't live up to the tales."

Ruffles shrugged. "He's ah... white as fuck."

"How boring." A crestfallen Maria replied.

Another shrug. "Pretty, I guess. But hell, it's probably for the best if he is a let down. Lilith'll claw your eyes out if you get near him." He offered her the joint again. "Think you can do it without coughing your guts up?"

"All's fair in love and war, I guess, especially when it's two chicks fighting over some dude." Maria replied, mirroring Ruffles's shrug. Regardless, attempt no. 2 was a bit better though nowhere near Ruffles's level. Maria, ever aware of the man's judgemental gaze, mock-pouted, "There. Geez, this isn't a weed smoking competition, y'know."

Ruffles laughed. "Hey, I ain't judging. I was a newb once, too, remember. Besides, it's cute. Like watching a puppy try to climb stairs for the first time."

"Happy to be a source of amusement." Maria muttered as she gave the joint back. The doctor tried to keep a straight face in those few seconds but ended up failing. Well, to be fair, the image of a puppy struggling up some stairs was funny.

"Wow, two puffs and you're high as fuck," said Ruffles. "Hope you don't have to do any medical shit for the next few hours!"

"Eh, they can stitch their up wounds for once. More practice for them, less work for me!" Maria replied, totally ignoring the bit about being high.

"Fair enough," he said. "Incidentally, your toilet can wait a little bit. I'm gonna give Allie a crash course on plumbing, so it's kinda perfect. Anyhow, I'm on lunch now. Wanna come with?"

"Sure." Maria beamed.

"Awesome," said Ruffles, finishing off the joint and stubbing it out and dropping it into one of the many bins built into the corridor walls.

***​

Astor continued to do what he had been doing ever since the Big Man had yelled at everyone to get in their rooms, just throwing a ball at a well then catching it. It was safe to sound that boredom was beginning to creep in. At least it was better than probably being shot to pieces on whatever mission the Captain would put the newbies on to test their mettle.

There was no doubt about his meager skill in the violent arts, how he was going to survive past six months he didn't know. Boredom, partly that was the reason that the runaway noble decided to join the bandit life however it seemed to get everywhere, like sand. He didn't like sand much either. What to do, what to do...

Well, the answer to that was simple, 'Back to creating a little bit of entertainment...'

 

[Fappy]

Whiskey turned the page of her book and carried on reading.

"Man, Joffrey's a fuckin' ****..." she muttered.

"Mommy, look what I drawed!" Millie piped up. Folding down the corner of her page, Whiskey closed her book and turned on the bed. "Let's see, sweetie." Millie turned the piece of paper and held it out.

It was a drawing of mostly a ship, focusing on the window, though a brown skinned figure, dressed in grey was clearly straddling the outside of the hull, with a wrench in his hand. Standing at the window, smiling out at them were Millie and herself. But it was the third person, his arm around Whiskey that caught her eye. A large man with stubble obscuring the line of pencil that was his mouth, in some kind of large brimmed hat.

"That's... that's really good, Millie," said Whiskey, knuckling at her eyes. "Give it here, I'll pin it up on the notice board." She was getting up to take it when there was a buzzing sound beneath her bed. She crouched and drew out the bulky longwave radio. Pressing the receiver button, she put the mouthpiece to her lips. "Yeah?"

"Miss Fifer," came a voice. Stern and authoritative, but not Payton. Not anyone Whiskey could place, actually.

"Who's this?"

"Just... call me Fargo," the voice replied. "I'm between assignments, so Mister Wilkes-Vines asked me to make this call while he attends to personal business. It's on account of business we have with... Captain Carmine, I guess he is now. So, if you could be so kind."

Whiskey didn't answer, but put the mouthpiece on its hook and stood up. "Millie, I'll be right back. Be a good girl and don't touch that, okay?"

"Okay."

With that, Whiskey headed off down the corridor, soon arriving at the mess hall. If Bennie wasn't here, there'd be at least someone who would know where he was. She opened the door, and quickly found him sitting at a table, chowing down.

"Got a call for you," she said dully.

Bennie looked up at the woman. "Wilkes-Vines?" he asked simply.

Whiskey nodded, producing a pack of Ace of Spades cigarettes she had nabbed off Lilith a day prior, she extracted one with her teeth. "Ayuh. Who else?" She offered Bennie the pack.

"Took them long enough," Bennie said before swiftly shoveling the rest of his canned beans into his mouth. Finished with his meal, Bennie got to his feet and took the pack from Whiskey. After lighting his cigarette, the pair started down the hall, towards Whiskey's room. "Any idea what they'll ask us to do?"

"Something dangerous," Whiskey replied immediately. "Payton respects you guys. Anything easy, he'll see as a waste of your time. Besides, it's not like you'd normally work for him, so he'll wanna get his worth outta you."

Bennie took a deep drag and nodded. "Figured as much," he said. "Payton's not one for doing anything half-assed. As much as I hate the guy, he gets shit done." Once they were inside Whiskey's room, Bennie looked to Millie. "Hey girl, you may want to take the coloring outside. The grown-ups have some important stuff to discuss."

"Go play with Axel, yeah?" said Whiskey. "Kid probably needs a day brightener."

"Okay, mommy," Millie replied. Putting down her colouring book, she got up and skipped through the door.

"So it's some guy called Fargo making the call," said Whiskey, pointing to the radio. "Name rings a bell, but I've never met him. Stir anything on your end?"

Bennie shrugged. "Sounds familiar for sure, but I can't say I remember who he is or if I've ever met the guy," he admitted. Sitting down at the edge of the bed, Bennie picked up the receiver and opened the mic. "This is Carmine speaking."

"Good to hear your voice," said Fargo. "Now, as I understand it, you've been expecting details of a job as compensation for inability to make payment, on your part. Is that correct?"

"You got it."

"Good... I'd hate to be taking you by surprise," he replied. "How familiar are you with Zephyr, Mister Carmine?"

"It's known for its shipyard. One of the few," Bennie told him. "I have a friend from there."

"Yes, the engineer," Fargo replied. "For this job, you'll probably need to bring him. Your job is to intercept a ship on the way there for repairs, and we want it commandeered without damage of any kind, as well as to see a firsthand look at his repair work."

"Whose ship is it?"

"It's a battleship belonging to Lord Chetwyn-Talbot, of Calico. As it's on a resupply and repair run, it'll only have a skeleton military crew aboard. They'll be lax, and unsuspecting of attack," said Fargo.

Bennie scratched his goatee, considering the facts so far. "Do you have their flight logs?" he asked. "We need locations and dates."

"Yes," Fargo replied. "They were surprisingly easy for me to acquire. There was even an open window, just four floors up. Contact us again when you have a landline, and someone will fax them over at your convenience."

"Okay, we should have one by noon tomorrow," Bennie said. "How long do we have until they reach their destination?"

"One week. That should be enough time for you to make any preparations you need. I've also been instructed to tell you we're organizing a supply drop for you. Ammunition and fresh Kevlar. On the house."

Bennie cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "Great," he said. "We'll be sending a small team to Pebblebrook tomorrow to receive that flight log. Think you can get your guys out there by then?"

"Easy enough," Fargo replied. "We'll bundle it in one." There was a pause. "You'll be meeting Captain Barandez."

"The bandito? I figured you'd have killed them all by now," Bennie said. "I can't imagine he'll be too thrilled seeing me considering my role in Santiago's downfall."

"We recruited quite a lot of them," Fargo replied. "Some are still in Boomhower, being overseen by our men to make sure they behave. Got a lot of their bottom rung guys in work gangs, fixing the damage they caused. Others, we moved out of the city to top up garrisons in other places, most of their officers included. Some demoted, some staying the same. Bandarez is one of the better behaved ones."

"Good luck with that," Bennie muttered sarcastically. "Anyway, the job sounds fairly cut-and-dry. I don't have anymore questions right now. Was there anything else?"

"Not really," said Fargo. "Anything else needs telling, you can discuss it with Bandarez, while you're picking up your supplies and ship logs. I'm back in the field the moment you hang up."

"Send your boss my regards," Bennie replied before switching off the radio. Looking to Whiskey, he grinned. "Mind watching the ship for me tomorrow? Sounds like I have a field trip to go on."

Whiskey grinned. "Do I get to call myself 'Acting Captain' and launch an era of tyranny until you get back?"

Bennie shook his head and laughed. "Knock yourself out, girl," he told her as he patted her on the back. "I reckon you'll feel more like a babysitter though."

"That's what you think," she said. "I'mma go all Drill Sergeant on their asses. Jesse makes a move, I'll stick him on latrine duty."

"Actually," Bennie said with a chuckle, "I think that kid could use some sunlight. I think I'll take him with me."

Whiskey shrugged. "If it were me, I'd take one of the older ones, make us look a little less like we're grasping at straws. Dress Gale right, and she'd fit our image."

"I'll take them both, and a few others too," Bennie mused. "Don't worry, I'll be sure WV knows what's up. You know how much I hate those slimy fucks." Despite his words he was smiling.

**********************************************************************************************************************************************************

Though she did a good job hiding it, Elizabeth was terrified to be left alone with Dio. Shortly after leaving the ballroom, they rode the elevator up to his penthouse. Thankfully Raphael rode up with them and had a monopoly on his Lord's ear the entire trip. The less she had to say to him the better.

After they were seated at the dinner table, however, that small comfort was taken from her. "Raphael, you are dismissed," Dio said as he placed a napkin over his lap. "Please wait outside the doors."

"Of course M'lord," he replied with a bow. "Let me know if you need anything at all." He told Elizabeth before leaving the dining room.

Trying to ignore the uncomfortable situation she now found herself in, Elizabeth shifted her focus to the meal. Dio's servants had really gone over-the-top: pork, turkey, ham, all manner of fruits and vegetables. Certainly a feast fit for an entire court, not just two people.

She didn't even know where to start.

Noticing Elizabeth's apprehension from across the table, Dio grinned. "Please, M'lady," he said, "eat whatever it is you desire. It is all splendid, trust me."

"So-so much food," Elizabeth stammered. "It's a tad overwhelming."

Dio's smug grin evaporated. "Elizabeth," he began informally, "why do you fear me?"

Spoiler: Dinner No Funs

"F-fear you?" Elizabeth asked. "I-I don't fear you, M'Lord!"

Dio stood up and slammed a fist down on the table. "ENOUGH OF YOUR BULLSHIT!" he snapped at her. "Do I look to be in a gaming mood?! Tell me, honestly... what did those bandits tell you?"

Elizabeth hesitated for a moment. She wanted so badly to shrink in her chair, but instead, she stood up. "Everything," she replied simply.

"There we go," Dio mused. "Was that so hard?" Sitting back down, he began to cut into his turkey. "Please, eat. We have much to discuss."

Elizabeth followed his example and sat down to eat. "Is it true?" she asked before taking a sip of her wine. "did you kill my sister?"

Dio looked up at her while stuffing his face full of meat. After washing it down with some wine, he wiped his lips with a napkin. "Yes," he finally said. "I killed Margaret."

Elizabeth couldn't believe what she was hearing. He actually admitted to it!

You piece of shit...

The young woman was trembling now. Dropping her utensils on her plate, Elizabeth reached down to the saber hanging off her hip. Dio laughed out loud just as she wrapped her fingers around the hilt. "Do you intend to avenge her with that?" he mocked. "Please M'Lady, I defeated the greatest swordsman in the world with my bare-hands. What makes you think you would fair any better?"

"Wh-why did you do it?" Elizabeth muttered. "Tell me!" Despite her fear, she was fighting with all her strength to keep herself from running at him with her new blade.

"She was a whore," Dio replied flatly.

That was too far.

Elizabeth's eye twitched. "Don't you talk about her that way," she warned.

Dio grinned. "She was a liar and a whore," he chirped, mockingly. "That ***** got what she deserved."

"YOU SON OF A *****!" Elizabeth wailed as she sprung to her feet and unsheathed her saber. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SPEAK OF HER LIKE THAT!"

Running around the side of the table, Elizabeth charged straight for him, intending to skewer him straight through the heart. Sadly for Elizabeth, Dio's reflexes were like nothing she'd ever seen. In what seemed like an instant, the man got to his feet and reached out for her. As the blade sailed by his chest harmlessly, he grabbed her forearm with one hand and her bicep in the other. With a small squeeze and a twist, pain shot through the girl's arm, forcing her to drop her weapon.

She screamed out in agony.

"I could break your arm in three places with how I have you right now, M'Lady," he told her calmly. "Please don't make me damage you before our wedding day."

Through gritted teeth and tears, Elizabeth cursed him. "FUCK YOU!"

With an unimpressed grunt, Dio threw her down to the ground. "At least you have that same fire," he said. "I always admired your sister for that."

Pulling herself up into a sitting position, Elizabeth cradled her wounded wrist. "Why?" she whispered. "Why are you doing this to my family?"

Seemingly ignoring her question, Dio wandered away from the table. "I regret it, you know," he said, cryptically.

"R-regret what?"

"Killing her," Dio replied simply.

Elizabeth sneered. "Don't you dare---"

"Like I said, I admired her," he interrupted. "I was young and foolish back then. I tried too hard to control her... to make her mine. I loved her, I really did."

"No," Elizabeth spat, "If you loved her you could never do what you did!"

Again, Dio ignored her. "She was beautiful, charming and brilliant," he mused. "She had big ideas, and she had what it took to make them a reality. Sure, she was cheating on me with another man, but that was only one of several ways that I had lost her. We shared the same vision, but over time we grew apart and that changed."

Elizabeth sat there in silence, trying to wrap her head around what he was getting at. Turning to face her once more, Dio approached the girl and bent over to help her to her feet. "Would you like to see what that vision was?"

 

[Dogmatic99]

"Thanks for fucking calling us, you useless fucking ****!"

"Ah-AAAHH! What the hell!?" Florian righted his head as the bright lights faded and he pressed a hand against the burning side of his brightly glowing cheek.

"I was worried fucking sick!" Lilith continued to shove the poor priest hard in the shoulder, a combination of anger and the cold, Lilith's cheeks were far redder than they had any right being.

"Lil, Lil, you need to- jus- Lil- can we- jus- st- stop it, Lil." He stammered on through her light barrage. "Lil... stop it, Lil. You need to stop...Lil... Lil- This is not the time or place." Florian hissed through gritted teeth as he grabbed Lilith's wrist, giving a cautious glance that no one was coming round any corners.

Snatching her wrist from Florian's grasp, Lilith huffed as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her smokes. Averting her eyes, she let the awkward silence between them grow.

'I'm sure he has a perfectly reasonable explanation, Lily, try not to kill him yet.'

Taking a deep drag, she stuffed her hands in her pockets as she looked up at the priest. "Well?" She frowned. "Out with it."

Florian let out a ragged sigh as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Come on." He ushered her on, making sure to give some space, invading Lil's personal space right now would only make things tougher. For now they just had to get off the streets to touch base without fear of reprisal.

They carried on and Florian removed his coat, bundling the mask up in its folds and holding it low as he did his best to look like some dull pedestrian.

"I tried to get in touch." He said, keeping his voice low for now. "Getting hold of a working radio is easier said than done these days. Most have been claimed and the safe house was compromised during the riots." They found a quiet exit and found a peaceful looking street with only a few passersby, they all had the air of civilians about them.

"What are you doing here?" It was his turn to be annoyed now. "You're supposed to be out of all this, where the hell is Axel?"

"A lot of shit has happened since we left, Florian." Lilith sighed, the cigarette hanging loosely from her lips. "Axel is back on the Maiden. Oh!" Lilith squeaked. "We managed to get the Maiden back, by the way." She chuckled.

Pulling her coat tighter around herself, Lilith shrugged her shoulders. "As for me?" She looked up at Florian from the corner of her eye. "I came here to look for you." The hint of a smile curled her lips.

Spoiler

"Jesus Christ." Florian seemed to breath the words out.

There was too much going through his head right now. What was going on back on the maiden? How was he going to get Lilith out of here? What was his next move going to be? He couldn't handle this on the street. They carried on their way a little more and he looked over to see her smiling. He didn't think he'd see that sight ever again.

Florian returned his own sad little smile. "You shouldn't have come."

"That appears to be the general consensus, yeah." Lilith chuckled as she nudged the man with her shoulder. After a few silent moments, Lilith looked up at Florian. "Some... things happened in Feroxi, something I'm not proud of." She averted her eyes. "That's why I'm here." She took a drag from her cigarette. "Erm, lot's of people... died, when we took back the Maiden. We didn't have the numbers to send a group here to look for you. After you didn't call, I thought something had happened, and..." She trailed off, saying nothing for a few moments before she looked back up at her friend.

"I'm glad you're okay, Florian." She smiled warmly. "Sprout is gonna kill me for ditching him, but it's worth it if I get to know you're okay."

"He's going to kill you so hard." Florian shook his head and gave his own little chuckle.

"It is good to see you Lil... it's just terrible that you're here." He wasn't worth this kind of risk and there was no way he could let her get dragged into what was happening here. The looming figure of the scarred ivory tower began to loom over the rooftops as if the city itself was trying to warn her off with him.

"We should catch up." Lilith stuffed her hands into the pockets of her coat. "Mostly because I want to know what happened here." She nodded towards the trashed tower. "But also because I can't feel my face." She shivered as a burst of smoke and steam erupted from her mouth.

Looking down at the coat in the Florian's arms, she shook her head incredulously. "How are you not feeling this?"

"The inmates are running the asylum, that's the expression isn't it?" He shrugged. "Come on, I have a friend who lives nearby, we can stay at his for a while until you get grounded."

They carried on at a brisk pace towards Father Jameson's church, keeping their heads low. Eventually they got there and Florian shoved the heavy front doors open, Lilith had seemed to have spent most of her strength shivering. How was she feeling this so badly?

Jameson came pottering out from the back as he usually did, rubbing his hands with an old dish cloth. "So we have company this time?" He called down the isle. "Do I need to start brushing up on my conversational northern again?"

"A weary traveller in need of something warm. So I don't have anything in way of tithe today."

"Such are the times." Jameson shrugged. The two of them shared a quiet look and the priest's eyes searched Lilith for a moment. "I'll go put the kettle on." He smiled weakly and very purposefully left Florian and Lilith to their privacy.

"He's from where I'm from!" Lilith whispered excitedly as the old priest tottered away, she shook Florian's arm playfully. "No way that's a coincidence." She smirked as she narrowed her eyes slyly. "Are you trying to collect us? Don't lie." She chuckled as she rubbed her hands together in an attempt to warm her fingers. "I wonder if he know's Sister Mildrid..." The girl mused. "They'd be around the same age."

"Is there we're you've been staying?" She looked around the rather empty looking church. "Why am I not surprised you'd choose a cold old building over something a little cosier?" She crossed her arms over he chest as she teased.

"I've got a few places to hold up." Better to keep on the move before anyone got the chance to track him down. He had been using the church a little too often recently though, it only upped the chances of getting tailed back.

He wasn't thinking of that much right now though as he was suddenly keenly aware of Lilith's hand so briefly on his arm. And the absence of his collar. 'Get a hold of yourself you idiot.' Had they ever gotten this close to each other when they were on the maiden?

"The nobility are gone, Lil." Florian sat himself down on the side of a pue, turning the conversation back to business before he lost himself in 'what ifs'. "The tower's fallen, every noble they could find is dead. The war's won... the bandits are in charge now." His gaze fell low, he'd seen the results every day but speaking the words was still it's own challenge.

"Christ." Lilith muttered. "No wonder everyone looks miserable." She'd always heard the North was unstable, but she never thought it would be this bad. "Those are the guys with the red scarves. right?" Lilith scoffed a she removed her hat, running a hand through her hair as she plopped herself down on the pew behind Florian's. "Wankers."

Resting her elbow on the arm of the pew, she cradled the side of her head. Lilith took in the priest's face as he looked down. He looked haggard, tired, like he'd aged five years since the last time she saw him. "Hey...". she cooed gently. "You okay?" She asked, with a smile and concerned look in her eyes.

"This was the dream a long time ago."

Florian hunched over like a man defeated. He'd spent so long carrying this around and now she was here, right on his doorstep and ready to throw herself into a fight she had no stake in. All to help a friend. She deserved to walk a path better than this one.

"I can't go with you, Lilith. I can't walk away again. My home is burning... " 'And it's my fault.'

There so much about Florian's past she knew nothing about. Lilith averted her eyes, a thoughtful look on her face as she furrowed her brow.

What did she have waiting for her back home? Sitting around with nothing to do, laced periodically with shady jobs for the Wilks-Vines?

No, she wouldn't go back to that. She couldn't go home, knowing one of her friends was fighting a battle alone. He didn't deserve to be alone.

Getting to her feet, Lilith sighed. "Right then, we better sort out where I'm gonna be staying." She looked around the church, her hands on her hips. "I dunno about this place, anywhere with a hot tub?"

"What?, not that doesn't mean your staying." Florian awkwardly leaped to his feet. "This isn't your fight, Lil, if something happened to you I could never forgive myself. You have the maiden back, the others need you there-"

"Are we recruiting now!?" Jamesone called over as he tottered back in, brandishing in with a tray of hot drinks. "I was just thinking you could use some extra help."

"No we are not recruiting!" Flroian snapped as the situation rolled away without him. "Things are going fine as they are."

"Is that why you're sleeping rough most nights and half killing yourself in the day?"

"I am doing what I have to!"

"You should listen to him, he's from my neck of the woods, we don't raise no fools in Sherwood you know." Quickly turning to face the elderly priest, Lilith bowed her head slightly. "Hi, I'm Lilith." She stated quickly before turning back to Florian. "Look, I'm not gonna pretend to know anything about what's going on around here, but it's not something you can deal with on your own."

Quickly grabbing a cup of tea from off the tray the priest was holding, she took a small sip, her eyes lighting up at the flavor. "Good tea, father." She nodded, her lips pursed.

"Pixie would kill me if I left you here to work yourself to death, so really, I'm doing both of us a favor."

"Stop encouraging each other, this is not a game! There is a war going on out there." But one was so far from the true violence he couldn't understand it entirely. And to Lilith this could have just been another job. If she'd seen it sooner, if she'd seen Angel Row.

"Men are crucified for standing against Hussars now and the women worse." Florian was a defeated man. Ranting the shame of his homeland and a life poorly spent. "The things the family are willing to do now. Any lines that were left are burning away every day." And it disgusted him for all the wrong reasons because deep down he knew he was more embarrassed that they'd fallen so low as much as he was appalled by the deeds themselves.

"So you'd send me back, knowing that you're here, fighting alone?" Lilith snapped. "Why the hell are you fighting anyway?! You're a priest! Or did that change while I wasn't around?" She stood over the man like a parent stood over a scolded child. "I came out here, to the arse end of fucking nowhere, three days freezing my tits off, if you're not coming back with me, then I'm gonna stick around until you do. You're a Maiden, Florian, and we don't leave people behind."

He had nothing. Putting sentences together in a foreign language was hard enough, it was impossible when his mind refused to try and work properly for guilt.

"I don't think she's leaving." Jameson mumbled awkwardly, swirling his tea.

Florian sagged, utterly defeated, there was no avoiding it now. He only had one option left. She'd hate him for it, she'd spit in his face and curse his name. He'd lose her forever but better to this than the grave. They'd just go right back to square one.

"You still have the spare gear I left here?"

Jameson nodded and Florian stalked out of the room silently, throwing his own scarf down and running his hands through his hair in sheer frustration. For a split second it revealed some of the older scars around his neck and the notch in his ear.

"You two seem close." The priest spoke up uncertainly. "He mentioned the maidens." He fidgetted with his cup as he searched for his own words. "For what it's worth you both seem to have half a good idea. From the way he spoke of you... he sounded happier away from this place. now he's back he seems so." He struggled to go on for a moment. "Conflicted is the wrong word - it'd be better if he was." He sipped at the tea as it turned cold in the frigid air. "Take him away from this place." He quietly pleaded. "For everyone's sake, before he really loses himself to this again."

'Loses himself?' What did the priest mean? Sipping her own quickly cooling tea, Lilith's face softened, a look of concern in her eyes. "I don't know what his history is with this place, he never talked about himself, and that's fine, that's his business." She shrugged her shoulders as a sad smile curled her lips. "I have another person in my life who won't accept help, even when she really needs it, she's the most stubborn person I know.

She took a long sip of tea. "The worst thing they can do is shut us out, I know he thinks it's dangerous for me here, but I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself." Her thoughts went back to the brawl from earlier that morning.

"Most of the time." She mumbled, glancing sideways.

"Of course he didn't tell you." The old priest sighed. "He even left his name behind. Forgive me, this is going to sound horribly cold, but this isn't just about him anymore. He likes to think I'm ignorant about these kind of things but I've lived here long enough to see how the tides can turn. He can't stay hidden forever. And if Florian and Vasa go up against each other then I don't think there can be any winners."

"Even more reason for me to stay." Lilith nodded her head resolutely. Florian had a lot of explaining to do. He wasn't going to get rid of her that easily.

"Let's go." Florian had returned from his rummaging wearing an old hoody and carrying a small backpack of his own. "There's something you need to see." He held the door open for Lilith and a fresh gust of wind poured in. It was going to be a long day.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Amy wasn't quite sure how long they had been napping, before she was wrenched awake the the same recurring dream that kept dogging her. She sat bolt upright on the bed with a sharp gasp, the sweat that she'd worked up before feeling considerably less pleasant now, a clammy film clinging to her skin. As her breathing returned to normal, she looked round to check she hadn't woken Axel. To her relief, she hadn't. Axel was still out of it, sporting a faint grin even as he slept. The sight of him lying there might have conjured a smile, had her mood not already been so sullied. As it was, she leaned forward, putting her head in her hands as she tried to banish the fragments of her nightmare.

She needed a distraction...

"Wake up, sleepy head." she purred, taking Axel's hands in hers, and kissing the tips of his fingers one by one, before her lips travelled up his arm and across to his chest, where she finally felt him stir. Smiling at him, she slid off the bed and out of the covers.

"Somebody will probably start to miss us soon. We need to clean up." she said, crossing over to the bathroom and turning on the shower, as the water quickly heated up, she went back through the door and draped herself against the wall, her naked body in full view of Axel where he lay on the bed, framed by the bathroom light, steam already beginning to fan out behind her. Grinning wickedly, she raised her arm and beckoned him closer with her finger.

"I hope you've still got some ammo left, soldier."

 

[Fappy]

Spoiler: Oh boy...

"Somebody will probably start to miss us soon. We need to clean up."

Sprout covered his eyes when the bathroom light suddenly came on. "Wh-what time is it?" he murmured, still dazed.

When his eyes finally acclimated to the foreign light, his jaw dropped to the floor. Amy was standing in the doorway like... it was like something out of a movie.

Is this real?

"I hope you've still got some ammo left, soldier."

Though he wasn't completely awake yet, his other brain certainly was. Springing to his feet completely naked, the boy joined Amy in the doorway and embraced her. "I have a lot more," he said with a chuckle as he began kissing her neck.

Amy giggled, before biting her lip.

"You've got one hell of a recovery!" she exclaimed, nipping at his ear before they practically bowled each-other under the steaming torrent. "I was worried you'd be walking sideways all day, but I guess now I've got to up my game."

Sprout grabbed a fistful of something special and pressed Amy's body up against the wall before kissing her under her jaw. "They always used ta' tease me an' say I had too much energy," Sprout mused before kissing her again. "I guess it comes in handy sometimes."

'Just what have I unleashed?!'

"You can... say that again." she gasped, reaching down to encourage Axel further (not that he needed it).

Sprout always was a boob guy, he'd just never had the opportunity to explore his fetish before. Amy wasn't bursting at the seams in that regard, but they were amazing all the same. After a short time working the upstairs a little voice in the back of his head began to whisper to him. What was it that Amy had told him?

'Don't spend too much time on any one thing.'

Growing a tad self conscious, Sprout withdrew from her chest and got down on his knees. Though her back was blocking most of the shower water, there was still enough of it getting past her that it was making it hard to see.

Suck it up, Axel.

Grabbing her forcefully from around her rear, he pressed his face between her thighs and, well...

This is harder than it looks...

With the shower water thrown in the mix, breathing had become a chore.

Amy's speech quickly deteriorated into a disjointed series of "Oh"'s, "God"'s, "Yes"'s, and other, even less coherent sounds. Lifting one of her legs over his shoulder, Amy grabbed a railing for support and, with her free hand, began massaging the back of Axel's head, gyrating her hips to offer further encouragement. Throwing her head back, she felt dizzy as the water beat down on her face.

This was good. This was really good...

'Well, here we are again. Didn't take you long, did it?'

'Shut up, brain!'

In an effort to head off the inevitable internal duologue, Amy reached down and brought Axel back to his feet, practically throwing herself down his throat.

"Your turn." she said, her face flushed and her chest heaving, as she began to make her own way down.

Sprout was relieved to get a moment to breath when Amy suddenly stuck her tongue down his throat. Whatever, he could wait a little while longer to... breath.

Worth.

Once Amy had made her way bellow the belt, Sprout clutched a tuff of her hair in his fist and rested the back of his head against the wall. Was it supposed to feel this good or was it just her.

Axel, you can' ever leave this girl. She's gonna ruin every other woman fer you fer the rest of yer life.

And then she did something with her tongue and Sprout couldn't think thoughts anymore.

Unfortunately, inside Amy's head, nothing she was doing was helping to distract her.

'Do you love him?'

'It's a little early to make that call, don't you think?'

'That didn't stop you before.'

'Well now I know better. So Axel's fun to be with. It doesn't change anything. There are still people who need to learn who not to screw with, people who need to be made to feel how I felt...'

'And what are you feeling now? Could you even picture Pixie's face right now if you tried?'

'That's not the point!'

Back in the present, Amy slithered to her feet, and leapt in the air, grabbing hold of the railing again as she wrapped her legs around Axel's waist, kissing him once more.

Sprout was still dizzy from Amy's... performance. He laughed nerviously as they kissed. "I thought showers were meant fer getting' clean, so why do I feel dirtier?" he asked with a stupid grin on his face. Pulling away from her for a moment, he held her face in his hands. Originally he had thought to do it just so he could appreciate her beauty, but now that he was there...

"Amy," he started, "a-are you okay?"

"With you, I'm better than okay." Amy lied, correcting her face in a heartbeat. Reaching over his shoulder, she grabbed a bottle of shower gel from a metal holder.

"If we're dirty, then we just need a rub down." she said, mischievously, popping the cap of the bottle with her thumb. "Now, I'm not hanging off you like this for the exercise, you know."

Sprout blushed. "Um, uh... yeah," he muttered. "I, uh, totally, sure..."

He had absolutely no clue what she was implying.

Amy rolled her eyes, but laughed all the same. Squeezing the bottle, she lathered shower gel over Axel's chest and shoulders, before passing the bottle to him reaching down and taking him in her hand.

"Now you do me." she whispered, guiding him in.

"Yes Ma'am," he chirped. After squirting a glob of gel into his palm, Sprout rubbed his hands together and went to work. At this point he'd spent enough time with her to know his way around her body, but it wasn't until now they he could really commit her form to memory. Her long, slender limbs, wide hips and... and he was just squeezing her breasts again.

Whoops.

When he was done and they were both clean, Sprout kissed her softly on the lips and smiled. "H-hey," he stammered, "I wanted ta' tell you somethin', but I, uh, dunno how ta' say it..."

Even as Amy tried harder and harder to lose herself in Axel's embrace, the battle still raged on.

'So, what happens when you get what you want, when they "feel the way you feel"? Are you going to stay with Axel?'

'Maybe. Maybe not.'

'Are you going to tell him then, that everything he thought he shared with you was about revenge, or do you just keep lying to him?'

'Everyone lies to everyone.'

'He doesn't...'

"Mmm?" Was all Amy could say in response to his question, panting and moaning as she held him closer, her pace and her pleasure building.

Sprout searched her eyes as a means to stall while he conjured up the right words. In truth, he knew exactly what he felt and he more-or-less knew how to express himself, he just wanted it to come out right.

Fuck it.

"I-I-I---I love you!" he finally blurted out. He laughed out of embarrassment and averted his gaze. "I, um... I dunno, I---I know yer havin' a rough time fittin' in 'round here, but I jus' want you ta' know I 'ave yer back. Hell, not even jus' with fittin' in, I'll be yer fuckin' vanguard out on the field too, 'course. I'm already experienced at takin' bullets fer purdy girls, anyhow." He winked at her and smiled like an idiot.

"Oh my God!" Amy gasped as she finally crested the wave... it was a second later when she registered what Axel had just said.

'Oh my God!'

For a while she just looked into his eyes, panting. Now was proving an incredibly inconvenient time to think fast.

'Well, do you love him too?'

'I don't know!'

Are you gonna say you love him too?'

'I DON'T KNOW!'

'Well, you either have to say it, or you have to stop. Make up your mind, dumbass!'

Buying herself some time, Amy launched into another long, intense bout of kissing. When they broke apart, the rush had subsided just enough for Amy to be able to properly study Axel's face as he waited for an answer. She saw him drinking her in, adoration written all over his face. Was this what she had looked like to Pixie.

"I love you too, Ax." she whispered, finally.

'Aaaand here we go again!'

"Great!" Sprout cooed as if it weren't a big deal at all. Just as he went in for another kiss his stomach roared at them. Blushing slightly, he snickered. "I reckon all the excitement from last night burned a lot of calories..." He pressed her up against the wall. "You wanna--- get---- some----food?"

"Oh, are you finished with me so soon?" Amy teased, the diversion giving her some more time to process what had just happened.

Sprout grit his teeth. "Oh, you'll---know---when---I'm---OH SHIT!"

And that was when Amy accidentally ripped the curtain rod off the wall.

What followed was about a minute of frantic gasping and giggling, with the pair of them lying in a heap on the floor. When she had her breath back, Amy just looked down silently at Axel for a while, stroking his face and smiling. Despite the turmoil still going on inside her head, she just couldn't help but be happy to be with him right now.

"Yeah, food sounds good." She said, turning off the shower and reaching through the steam for a towel.

A few minutes later, they were both dried and dressed, and headed out the door. Just before they set off in the direction of the canteen, Amy held Axel up, to plant one more soft kiss on his lips, when they broke apart, she kept a hold of his hand.

"Let's go."

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************

Just as Aesop followed after Carlos, four men entered the bar, brushing right by him on his way out. Pixie gave Cameron one last glance across the bar before she turned around in her stool and nursed the empty glass that had been left there. A pretty blond woman sitting alone in a bar like this was eye-catching to say the least, but Pixie knew a thing or two about hiding in plain sight.

Though she hadn't seen the men Carlos had warned her about, she fingered these guys pretty quick. Just by the way they held themselves while entering the bar made it was clear they weren't looking to throw back a few shots. Even still, their disguises were at least convincing. Ripped up denim, rags and bandannas strapped around different parts of their bodies, unshaven and unkempt; yup, these guys looked like legit scum.

Moments after entering, the four men inexplicably split up.

Pixie suppressed a laugh.

Rookie mistake.

One was standing by the door, ogling one of the bar maids nearby while another bee-lined for the bathroom. The last two came up on either side of Pixie and leaned over the bar. "Two dingles on the rocks," the darker man said. Glancing at Pixie, he added, "And a screwdriver for the pretty lady."

"Sure thing, boss," the bartender from earlier replied.

Pixie turned her head to face the man. Resting her cheek on her knuckles, she forced a smile. "A screwdriver?" she asked. "Do I look like the type to order that drink?"

"It's the hair," the man said with a gruff laugh. He batted the brim of her wig that hung by her shoulder. "Reminded me of oranges. I love oranges."

"He loves oranges," the other man said.

Pixie cocked an eyebrow. "Is that so?" she asked.

This was not good.

The man who had ordered the drink laughed. "Fuck yeah, I do," he cooed. "You know when you're fuckin' a redhead? When she spreads her **** open it kinda looks like a cut open orange."

The other man laughed. "Yeah, fuckin' fire-crotches, right?" he added.

Yeah, they were definitely on to her.

"Oh," Pixie exclaimed, covering her lips with her fingers in a dramatic fashion. "Is that any way ta' talk to a lady ya' jus' met?"

"Speakin' of manners," the other man said, "why're you wearin' sunglasses indoors?"

Pixie shrugged. "Helps me with my poker face," she replied with a cheeky grin.

Before the men could challenge her, the drinks had arrived. Neither of them took their eyes off of her while she took the yellow-tinted drink and downed it all in one go. Slamming the tall glass down on the table, she got up from her stool and turned to leave. "Thanks fer the drink fellas, but I gotta get goin'," she said.

"Hey," the lighter one started, "why leave so soon? The party's jus' gettin' started?"

"Got places ta' be," she said with a shrug. "Maybe next time."

Turning to face the door, she started for the exit when she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. "We insist," said the darker man. Pixie looked to the man by the door who was subtly revealing his sidearm from under his jacket. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the lighter man sitting at the bar doing much the same thing.

Pixie flared her nostrils twice, eliciting a subtle nod from Cam. After a long sigh, Pixie laughed. "That bit about the orange was actually kinda funny," she admitted, looking ahead at the exit once more.

"Oh yeah?" the man asked with a stupid grin on his face. "Well if ya' stick around I---"

Spoiler: This is what we keep her around for

Suddenly Pixie grabbed his wrist from over her shoulder and lashed out with an elbow to his sternum. Her eye never left the man by the door as she pulled the touchy-feely man around her by the same hand he'd laid on her shoulder. In one fluid motion she'd twisted his arm behind his back, turning him into a human shield while she drew her pistol from her waistband and leveled it at the man across the room.

"DON'T SHOO---!" The man screamed out in agony, but it was too late. A short burst of gunfire was exchanged between the two, resulting in three slugs burrowing into her human shield's chest and Pixie's own shots all finding their mark in her opponent's.

Dropping the dead weight to the ground, Pixie turned around to see that Cameron had put two bullets in the lighter man's skull, leaving him lying at the foot of his bar stool. The two women exchanged light-hearted grins as the rest of the clientele ran screaming out of the bar.

Before either woman could say anything to the other the sound of gunshots could be heard from outside. "The fuck's goin' on out there?" Pixie muttered. She looked back at Cameron. "Cam, stay here an' watch over Bonnie while---"

"PIXIE, LOOK OUT!" Cam shouted just as the fourth man stuck his head out of the bathroom door and fired his revolver. Moving quickly, Cam managed to tackle Pixie out of the way, but took the hit in her shoulder. She squealed in agony as she fell to floor, clutching her shoulder.

"CAM!" Pixie shouted as she stumbled across the bar, trying to regain her composure.

SLOPPY! THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKIN', PIXIE?!

"STAY DOWN!" She ordered as she leveled her pistol and returned fire on the door. With every additional shot she took one step closer to the door. Her superior precision and rate of fire forced the man back into the bathroom. Once she'd reached the door she wasted no time in kicking it off its hinges and charging inside.

Pixie's magazine had run dry, but that was okay. This man had shot her girl... his death wouldn't be so swift.

As she came upon the final assailant he fired his last two shots at her, aiming wide with the first and just barely grazing her with the second. Pixie was too quick, too wild to get a bead on at this range. Those last two shots were his only hope.

He was a dead man now.

Grabbing his wrist, Pixie stepped forward and struck his forearm with an open palm, snapping the bone and forcing him to drop his emptied revolver. His screams were delayed as it took him a moment to notice the jagged bone jutting out of his flesh. It didn't have long to scream, however. Grabbing him by the throat, Pixie ran up to the porcelain sink and bashed the back of his head against it, shattering it into pieces. Dust filled the space between them, causing the man to cough and wheeze on the floor before she picked him up by the collar and dragged him into one of the stalls.

Dunking his head into the toilet, she grabbed his other hand and pulled it backwards before he could pull the flusher. After letting him gargle the unsanitary, shit water for awhile, Pixie pulled his head out of the toilet. "WHO SENT YOU?!" she barked.

"D-d-d-dio," he cried. "WE'RE DIO'S MEN! PLEASE DON'T---" The man was violently cut off when Pixie wrapped her arms around his head and twisted, severing his spinal cord effortlessly.

Getting to her feet, she spit on the man's corpse before heading out the door.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

The walk took them meandering through some of the older parts of the city and through areas that had seen ranging effects of the fighting. The riots on the day of the tower's fall had gutted the highstreets that were just starting to patch themselves back together. While the residential districts had largely bunkered down and waited for things to blow over. They avoided the areas that had gained the attention of the more organized Bejic bandits.

Eventually they found their way to abandoned factory complex, long since left unguarded. Florian held one of the broken fences back as Lilith ducked underneath before following her inside. It was easy enough to get inside the main building and the dust filled corpse of the factory floor and down into the basement levels, all the while Florian's eyes darted around as he uncertainly lead them around each corner.

"Here it is." He said, finally satisfied. "This is it!"

He sauntered into the centre of the most cleanly cleared out room in the entire place. Spreading his arms wide as he casually turned to Lilith like some proud inventor. "It was in a much bigger mess when I last saw it, crater in the wall's still there." He pointed to the gaping wound in the architecture. "Looks like they cleared up the ammunition." He kept on scanning the place as if it was something impressive before finally taking a makeshift seat on a small pile of rubble. Pulling a bottle of clear vodka from his bag and laying down his hoody on the floor like he was setting up a picnic.

"This might be a long talk, better settle in."

Arms on her hips, Lilith glanced around the room. "Cosy." She chuckled, reluctant to sit on the dusty ground, but even more reluctant to take off her coat.

'Dusty floor it is!'

Making herself as comfortable as was possible, given the circumstances, her legs crossed, she lit up a cigarette before resting an elbow on her knee, cradling the side of her head as she blew smoke from the corner of her mouth.

"Why are we here, Florian?" She asked plainly, a slight look of apprehension about her.

"This used to be an arms factory. Frostfall has a long tradition as a gunsmith's town. Only place on the rock you could call a weapon a piece of art. It is also where, as far as the city is concerned, I died."

It actually felt good to get that off his chest at last. Like a weight had been lifted. It was good stuff!

Lilith didn't respond for a while, she averted her eyes, brow furrowed as she thought on the man's words. Was this why he was always so reluctant to talk about himself? There had to be more to it than that.

Finally she looked up at Florian. "Am I about to hear a story?" She smirked slightly.

Florian let out half a breath of laughter despite himself. He should have expected something like that from her. Now he just had to take a deep breath and dive in.

"If you want to stay here. If you actually want to get dragged into this, then you may want to understand why we're fighting." 'And then you wont want to.' "This isn't a maiden job, Lil. It's not so clear cut."

Lilith rolled her eyes. "This isn't a job, Florian, I'm not here on orders. I left the Maiden on my own initiative." She took a deep drag, thinking for a moment as smoke crawled from her nostrils. "If you won't leave, then whatever the hell is going on around here is important to you, I just want to understand what it is that's keeping you here, that's all." She brushed a strand of hair from her face.

"You look like shit, Florian." She said bluntly, a small smile curling her lips. "You're no good to anyone if you work yourself into the grave. You need help." She shrugged a shoulder. "Here I am."

Why was this so hard? He was half way there, he just had to tell her the rest, let her know the simple truth. It was like introducing yourself. IT was all easy enough to explain if he just started at a good beginning and-

"They're my family." Or he could just blurt it out.

Spoiler

"I was born Florian Bejic. Son of Vasa and Anna Bejic. When I was a child there was a half dozen family syndicates trying to control the city underworld. We were a small family, thugs, the attack dogs of the Boykov nobles." It was getting harder to look her in the eye now. He'd worked so long to keep this from her and leave these words behind.

"But there was only room for one syndicate here. I wasn't even ten when the family wars started but my training had already been going on for a few years by this point. I killed a man before I could even be called one and when I was old enough; my father decided it was time I take to the field. The bloodline had to be strong to survive. The other families fell one by one. Vasa- my father, destroyed them all... and I helped lead the charge."

He fell quiet for a while, picking up the vodka bottle and turning it over in his hands before taking a determined swig, coughing it back a little as he felt the warmth trickle down his throat and make a home in his chest.

"We had peace for a while, but it wasn't enough. The nobility had grown old and stagnant, they'd failed to keep us down during the conflicts and we smelt blood. It was going to be a long haul but the family was willing. We were going to topple them and claim the north itself. I'd cut my teeth on the other families and was ready for more. This was bigger than anything we'd done before."

Another swig and a bitter smile at memories of a seemingly better time.

"I helped my father draw up the plans. I helped cause this, Lil, This was meant to be my war." He finally dared to look back up at her. Feeling the knot in his gut and waiting for her response.

Lilith titled her as she looked at the man, the cigarette hanging loosely from her lips as she took a moment to process what he had just said. She wasn't sure what she expected. That he'd gotten into trouble, maybe ran in with a bad crowd and he needed out. But this? This was huge.

Looking back, some things started to make a lot more sense. Why he handled himself so well during the fight that morning, and other little slippages, like the gun during the train robbery.

'The train robbery, Christ, that feels like forever ago.'

The priest with a dark history, she was sure Sprout had a comic with a similar premise. Glancing up at Florian as he took another long sip from the vodka bottle, a sad smile curled her lips.

"Why do you look so ashamed?" She asked softly.

How could she ask him that? Even she couldn't be that forgiving. She just didn't know.

"What's not to be ashamed of? If you knew, Lil." His hands trembled lightly and he balled them into fists. He could at least show some dignity for God's sake!

"The things I've done. The people who've died because of me and worse! This isn't something I was tricked into, I knew what I was doing, I loved what I was doing... and now a whole dome is burning because of what I've done."

"But you left, didn't you?" She tilted her head curiously. "I assume that's why you faked your death?" She shrugged her shoulders. "Not your fault your shitty family carried on without you." She chuckled. "Can't blame yourself for that." She took one final drag of her cigarette before stubbing it out on the ground next to her.

"So you did some fucked up shit, so what?" The girl blew smoke out the corner of her mouth. "You're a good guy, Florian." She smiled, pulling her legs to her chest, she rested her chin on her knees.

"You wouldn't still be here trying to fix it, if that weren't true."

"I didn't just leave, Lil, I ran! Like a fucking coward I ran! I thought it would slow things down and instead it just sped things up!" He let out a mad, bitter, little laugh at the sheer stupidity of the plan. He'd been such a child back then. "Fuck! If... If I'd stayed; I could have stopped this! I should have stopped this!"

A good guy. She could look him in the eye and call him a good guy. How could she do this?! He didn't deserve this! He blinked back the water gathering in his eyes. Must have been the cold.

Lilith's face softened as Florian's emotions began to get the better of him. Had he always felt this way? Had he bottled this up for years?

"One person didn't cause all that, Florian." She pointed her thumb over her shoulder. "And one person couldn't have stopped it." She thought for a second. "We all have those moments in our lives where we think 'what if I had done this', or 'things would be different if I hadn't done that', but you don't know that." She shook her head. "None of us do."

Averting her eyes, Lilith thought back to all that had happened in Feroxi, Sprout getting shot, the fight with Gorgon.

Abandoning Elizabeth and Cranston.

Looking back up at Florian, Lilith smiled. "You can't change the world, Florian." She brushed her hair out of her eyes. "But you can refuse to let it change you." She wasn't sure how she could comfort the man. "It's what we do now, that's what important, you can't change the past, but you can take what you've learned and apply to the now." She grinned. "Isn't that what you're doing now?"

This wasn't right. Every sin he'd carried with him since leaving, every life he'd taken, some of them in this very room; was flashing before his eyes. Did none of it matter to her?

He didn't deserve this.

"I lied to you. I lied to your face and preached peace like a fool when all I wanted was to shout bloody murder and let loose. Everyday I almost broke trying to keep it all back." Florian was hunching further and further forward, practically kneeling before her like a man repentant before his judge.

"I'm a murderer, Lil. A hypocrite and a killer." A monster.

"You said you almost broke. But you didn't" She said softly, shrugging her shoulders. She took in Florian's desperate eyes.

"Do you want me to hate you? Is that it? Like all the things you've done would somehow be balanced out if someone despised you for it?" Laughing as she leaned forward, she flicked the tip of Florian's nose gently with a finger. "Sorry mate, I know Pixie, remember? You're an angel compared to her."

Florian didn't know what to feel, what to say or do. He let out a tired, throaty little laugh and felt like some foolish little child. So not much difference from normal really. He slumped forward and rested his forehead against Lilith's.

"You're too good for this place." He croaked.

So he'd lost again. There was no point in fighting her any more, not like this. At least he could relax now, a little bit any way. "To hell with it then." He drew back and looked her in the eye. "No more secrets then." He allowed himself the faintest beginnings of a smile. His old internal guards fell just a little more and he wrapped his arms around her into a tight embrace.

Taken aback by the sudden hug, Lilith blushed before reciprocating. "This is so gay." She started, before opening her eyes wide as if realising something. "Is something Sprout would say!" She corrected herself. "Not me though, I like hugs."

'Smoooooooooth, Lily'.

Letting herself linger in his embrace a lot longer than she really should have, she gently withdrew, her hands on Florian's shoulders as she looked him in the eye. "So, how'd you die?" She grinned.

"I uuh." Florian brushed the hair out of his eyes and regained his senses as he suddenly realized how close the two of them were. "I got blown up." He said, a little proud of himself. Cus if you had to go some way.

"Bunch of explosives got hit in the fire fight." He nodded to the hole in the wall. "There were only a few of us and- and the blast took out everybody left. Except me, I had some cover. Well me and one other but he was left dying so I shot him." He kind of shrugged off that last part. "We all had uniforms for the job and everyone was burned to a crisp and torn apart." The smell at the time was not a fun memory. "I just had to leave some of my effects on a corpse my height."

It sounded so stupid saying it out loud. "It was a spur of the moment plan." He grinned like an idiot trying to explain the things they did when they were drunk that seemed like such a good idea at the time. "I think the only reason no one came looking was because... well, why would I fake my death and run away? That would... be stupid."

"Badass." Lilith pursed her lips as she nodded her head in approval. Her eyes lingering on his for a moment, she snapped herself out of it, withdrawing her hands hastily from Florian's shoulders. "So, err, what convinced you to leave? Something must have happened, right?" She held out her hand, nodding at the bottle of vodka.

"That, I'm not sure. A few things I guess. It's not like it happened overnight." He took her offer of the bottle and took a few hearty gulps. "It all started with Father Jameson actually- the priest from earlier. It was just one encounter but... it got me thinking, y'know? I'd never really questioned what I was doing before. It was all I'd ever known. It was my life, plain and simple. I never thought about why I did it or how what it did to others, just about what I wanted and how I could get it. When your life goal is decided at birth you can get blinded by focus."

A few more swigs. "But, Lilith, when you look at it from the outside. Being a bandit is fucking crazy!" He burst out into laughter, coughing on his last swig of vodka a little. The spluttering killed his momentum and Florian's laughs quickly. "And then I caught empathy and I was damned." He said a little more sombrely. It made sense to him anyway.

"I wanted you to pass me the bottle, tosser." Lilith chuckled as she snatched the vodka from Florian, taking a long swig herself. Wiping her mouth on her sleeve, she coughed as her throat began to burn. "Strong stuff." She muttered.

Thinking on the man's words, Lilith reached into her pocket and pulled out her smokes. "Well, like you said, you didn't know any different. That was your life, can't blame a person for that." Pulling a cigarette from the pack with her lips, she lit it and took a deep drag. "You had only ever had that perspective, as soon as you started seeing it from another, you started to question if what you were doing was the right thing." She brushed the hair from her eyes. "Some people cover their ears and ignore the world around them. But you had your eyes opened and you chose to do something about it."

Blowing smoke from the corner of her mouth, she grinned, gripping the cigarette in her teeth. "That's why I know you're a good guy."

'How can you say that? How can you say those words and look at me that way and mean it?' The way she looked at him the first time they met. She was the first woman to ever look at him that way, even when he was a priest. No scepticism, no disdain. He hated it at first, like she saw right through him, through all the fronts and guards and just saw him.

'And you thought me a good man.' The first woman who made him think he could be.

"Thank you." Was all he could say.

'Thank you so much.'

"Don't make this fuckin' gay." Lilith rolled her eyes as she took another swig from the bottle of vodka, the cigarette still between her teeth, a trick she had learned a long time ago. Pushing herself to her feet, she dusted herself down before holding a hand out to Florian. "It's far too early to get drunk, and I still have some stuff at the place I stayed in last night." She smiled warmly. "Your place better have a damn heater, it's so cold I could cut glass." She winked playfully at the man.

"My bad." Florian snorted, grinning right back at her as she pulled him up. "Guess I've been a man of the cloth too long. I need to get back into the swing of being a bandit. And we need to get you a base!" He lead them back out of the factory the way they'd came, making sure to pull his hood up once they reached ground level. Just in case.

"So Lilith." He turned to her as they strode out of the massive bay doors. "You ready to go save a dome?"

Lilith hooked her arm around Florian's. "Gonna be big damn heroes."

 

[Dogmatic99]

*Knock Knock Knock*

Florian coughed a little in the overly sterilized hallway. It was quiet for a minute before they heard the muffled sound of an unhealthy number of locks being loosened and clicked off their chains. The door swung open just half way to reveal Irena.

She was a slight woman with short blonde hair and came up to Florian's shoulder. She was dressed plainly and little for the cold, the abundance of eye make up she was wearing couldn't quite hide the air of tiredness she had about her as she glanced cautiously from Florian to Lilith.

"Who's this?" She asked by way of greeting. She had a hint of the local accent but it barely registered.

"A Friend." Florian nodded. "She's here to help."

Irena eyed up Lilith in silence, mistrust written plainly on her face. For whatever reason she relented, opening the door the rest of the way and letting the two of them step inside. Her apartment was surprisingly spacious, with a wide open living room splitting off into four other doorways and covered in minimalist decor. Place seemed more up market than the exterior suggested.

"I heard you had a run in with Isaac's guys today."

"We did." Florian said casually, making a bee-line for the kitchen.

"That was fun." Lilith chuckled. "I surprised we got away without killing any of 'em." The woman rubbed her hands together. 'Does nobody in this dome heat their room?'

Standing awkwardly in the middle of the living room, Lilith took in the decor. "Nice place." Lilith pursed her lips as she nodded her head.

"I know." Irena crossed her arms as she paced to the far end of the room, keeping her eye on Lilith all the while. "Who are you?"

"She's cool!" Flroian called unseen from the kitchen.

'Well isn't she direct?' Lilith noted amusingly. "I'm Lilith." The woman smiled. "I'm a friend of Florian's. Not from around here, as you can probably tell." She laughed nervously.

Shoving her hands in her pockets, Lilith coughed as she felt the other woman's eyes burning holes into her. "So... how's things?"

"Pretty rough."

"You can trust her, Irena." Florian called over into the room before reappearing with a plate crammed with half the cold food her could find in the kitchen and a massive glass of water. He was beginning to feel the vodka. He took a place at the small table as if he he owned the place and looked over to the two women.

"Lilith's offering her service for free. So you have a wildcard in your hand now." She was about to offer some kind of protest when Florian cut her off. "Don't bother arguing, I already tried. Look on the bright side, now you have a second, skilled, agent."

Irena gave a rough sigh and rubbed at her temples, squeezing her eyes tightly shut as if she could just wish this all away. "So your're bringing random girls back to my place and stealing my food on top of everything else?"

"In my defense." Florian said between mouthfuls of ham. "I've done worse." Irena stared daggers into him. "And I got you the gun shipment tomorrow if you want it." he pulled some crumpled files from the folds of his clothes as he slumped them over the back of the chair and the hum of internal heating faded into life.

"Alright then... let's talk strategy." She conceded, taking her own place at the table.

Spoiler

Lilith's stomach began doing back flips over the sight of the ham. Shrugging her coat off her shoulders, Lilith placed it on the back of a chair before sitting down, removing her hat she ran a hand through her hair before tussling it gently into place. "Florian hasn't really filled me in on the details." She leaned over and stole a chunk of ham from his fingers before he could shove it in his mouth. "So I might ask some questions, is that okay?"

Lilith popped the piece of ham in her mouth, winking at Florian as he gave her a pouty look.

"I'll try and sum it up easy."

It took a little back and forth on Florian and Irena's part's as they went over the smaller parts of the syndicates structure which only lead to making it more confusing for Lilith. Soon enough Florian just wiped the slate clean and painted her the basic picture in broad strokes. It would make things easy enough to work with for now.

"The family isn't exactly a totally professional set up. There's things like ranks and units sure but things are a little more fluid than that if you can rise high enough. I guess you could call it..." He struggled for the right words.

"Bullshit pseudo-warrior culture." Irena cut in.

"Thank you for that. That's very open minded right there." Florian shot her a look.

"That's pretty much it though." Irena carried on unphased. "You have Vasa on the top and under him are the three chief captains. Under the captains you have the named men who lead the crews and outfits that make up the bulk of the family. But if you want to rise high enough you need to spot a good option when you see them. Crews have been headhunted plenty of times. If you want to keep your share of things intact then you need to keep your people in line and loyal. Call it an intense meritocracy. If you can't keep yourself in command then you don't get to stay there."

Florian leaned in to take over his part of the explanation. "Except that thanks to the war we've lost a lot of the firm standard holders. There's a new breed making their move now and trying to claim as much of the city as they can before things calm down. Nothing surprising but these are crews that found the family - and each other - in violence. These are young guys, for them Frostfall's been in a state of conflict most of their lives. To them there's only one way of ding things. they can't sit idle long. The old guard may have more patience and some professional standards but they're tired and outnumbered. Their own codes of honour are weighing them down. More and more people are going to these new captains, they've got drive, energy and numbers have put them in the driving seat."

"You could think of it like a board of shareholders." Irena said. "Except the shares are killers and guns for hire."

That was where Florian came in, as they went on to explain. Working under cover as either a masked urban menace or passing off sabotage as internal power struggles. Forcing the free agents and weak of conviction to go looking to Irena for protection and steady work. She herself specialized in gathering the family's intelligence so her gents made it easier for a single person to move unnoticed and rookies enjoyed the steady and 'quieter' jobs she offered. With Florian's help she'd been steadily poaching and undermining her way to the top of the pyramid.

"Once we have the majority share." Irena continued her metaphor. "We can reveal ourselves to Vasa, force him to step down quietly without further bloodshed and push out any leftover undesirables with easily once I take over."

"If it goes as smoothly as we hope." Florian took another drink.

"If we want to put a nail in this coffin though we need to bring Erik on board. He's the only one the old guard will listen to and the new kids are scared of enough to think twice about going up against." Irena jumped in. "How we do that is going to be tricky, Christ, you've been putting it off from the start. This would have been a lot easier with his help." She glared a little more as Florian shifted uncomfortably.

"This Erik." Lilith started arms crossed in the table. "He's someone you know from before you... well. 'Died'?" She had been looking at Florian when the name was brought up. It seemed to make him nervous.

"He's a good guy?" Lilith asked, tilting her head inquisitively.

"He's... well he's my mentor I guess. Taught me how to handle myself, every way to fight and kill a man under the suns. Well the one's he didn't write off as shit anyway. I knew him since, forever. Barely a day went by he didn't put me through my paces."

"He took your death pretty hard." Irena's scowl softened slightly. Only for a second though before it came back in force. "He stood your vigil right there with Vasa." She didn't care to go into more detail.

"How'd you think he's gonna take you showing up all unexploded?" Lilith rested her cheek in her palm. "Should we be bringing guns to that meeting?" She joked as she leaned forward to steal more of Florian's food.

They didn't answer straight away. Granted, they didn't say yes but the look they shared didn't exactly say no.

"We'd need some big guns." Florian whispered.

"He'll... he'll want to join up." It took Irena a second to compose herself properly. "He lost Petrov to this. He lead more vanguards than I can count. And now he's getting shafted, he wont admit it but he is. Vasa's moving on without him and now Erik and his guys are getting left out in the cold. Even he wants more than this."

"We're asking him to go against the family." Florian mused.

"We're asking him to save it."

"Way to kill the mood guys." Lilith chuckled as she popped another piece of ham in her mouth. Thinking for moment, she clasped her fingers together as she rested her chin on the back of her hands, her expression hardened as she locked eyes with Florian. "Look, Florian, earlier today. You made a big deal about not killing anyone." Her eyes didn't waver. "I admire that about you, I really do, but I can't see this going down as smoothly as you hope it will." She glanced at Irena. "Realistically, who's gonna be a problem we're gonna have to deal with if we want any chance of this working?"

"Sergei." They said together without a moment's hesitation.

"The third chief."

"My replacement."

"For the most part he served as Vasa's lead interrigator."

"Read, torturer."

"He's got the largest following of crews and captains over the war. He barely keeps his people under any kind of control. Most are drawn to that kind of freedom, more profit and power for them. He runs the street level operations, started there himself. That's his appeal, I think, he favors his own kind and if a punk like him can rise this high then there's hope for all those under him. Lord know's it's not his charisma." Irena went through it like an informal resume. Florian's disdain was almost palpable.

"Sounds like a lovely bloke." Lilith muttered sarcastically. "Sergei, Christ, that's the third time I've heard that name, and I only got into town last night." She chuckled. "You guys aren't great with names are you?"

"They are really not here." Irena nodded.

"People like the old names." Florian shrugged. "Good stuff with meaning."

"Anyway. You have a plan for tomorrow?"

"Yeah... yeah I'll handle Erik."

"Guess I'll clear out the guest room then." Irena pushed herself up from the chair and set about pottering around her apartment like a half-assed host, getting the spare room ready for the two of them. "If you two are sharing then keep it down. I need some sleep."

"She's usually a lot more fun than this." Florian grinned awkwardly.

"Keep it down..." Lilith pursed her lips as she pondered for a moment before her eyes widened with the realization. "Oh! Oh no, it's not like..."

Irena had already left the room.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Spoiler

"This looks cosy." Lilith cooed as she placed her backpack and rifle in the corner of the relatively small room. There was a double bed in one corner, with enough floor space for one of them to sleep on the carpet, which is what she guessed the rolled sleeping bag propped against the bed was for.

That wasn't what caught Lilith's eye though, no, what caught her eyes was far more beautiful. "Yesssssss." The girl pumped her fist as she hurried over to the small electric heater plugged into the wall opposite the bed. Falling to her knees, she embraced the little warmth giver. "I thought I'd never see you again." She mumbled softly before looking over her shoulder at Florian, a judgemental look on her face. "He'll never understand our love, he's one of them, he likes the cold."

"What cold? It's stuffy in here." He'd never understand her obsession with heat. Half the south was like a sauna, a world where no one wore sleeves and cold air was a valuable commodity. The best Florian could guess was that Lilith and the others had all adapted to extreme heat and couldn't handle anything else. "I get the bathroom first." He slung his backpack down near Lil's and went for the little en suite. He wouldn't take long.

Flicking on the heater to it's lowest setting, Lilith sat in front of it while she took off her boots and socks, tossing them to one side as she lay back on the carpet, wiggling her toes as the heater worked its magic. "Oh god, that's the stuff." A relaxed sigh escaped her lips as she put her hands behind her head.

"She seems nice." Lilith closed her eyes. "Irena I mean. You know her long?"

"Yeah she's like a proper lady." Florian called back through the door, splashing water on his face and searching for an unclaimed toothbrush. His shirt was more or less in tatters by this point, he'd have to find something workable tomorrow morning.

He threw it into a corner and gave the scars on his arms the once over. He could make do with just the vest for now, no doubt Lilith would want the heat cranked up. The cuts were still clean and fading away well enough, though he'd prefer they'd been fainter. Maybe over time if he was lucky. Not that he had been lately.

'Maybe some of Lil's will rub off on me.'

"All yours." He said, stepping out and edging around the bed for her.

"I'm okay for now." She cooed, eyes still closed, still wiggling her toes gently. "I always knew this place was cold, but I never thought it would affect me this badly, you know?" She chuckled as she rolled onto her side, propping her head up with her hand, she looked at Florian, her eyes drawn to his arms. Those were not old wounds.

'Pixie mentioned he was tortured. Oh god, Florian...' Fighting the urge to ask him about them, she quickly averted her eyes. "So, er, I'm guessing there's not much else we can do today, huh?"

"Nothing else springs to mind, no." He sat down on the edge of the bed, hands wrapped together as he leaned over. Just looking at her as he fell into his usual quiet. "I just... I just can't believe that you're here." He half chuckled. "You. You and Frostfall are in the same place. I always wondered if the maiden would ever come up here but this... it just doesn't feel real."

"I was worried about you, Florian." Lilith smiled warmly as she looked up at the man. "I was useless back home. We work for the Wilkes-Vines now, did you know that?" She grimaced distastefully. "I'd rather be here, with you, doing something worthwhile, than back there being a lapdog." She grinned. "The cold never bothered me anyway." She coughed as she glanced down at her feet.

The woman's expression softened. "There's a lot I need to tell you, about what happened when we were both away." She took a deep breath. "Warren's dead, Florian. A lot of the other older Maidens too. Aesop nearly lost his goddamn mind, Pixie's of doing some job for Contessa Lombardi, because the last thing we need is another Noble family on our arses." She looked down at the carpet. "Bennie's in charge of the Maiden for now, we have a lot of new Maidens, guys we picked up in Yuteni, guys from Austin's crew who came to their senses. A lot of kids." She chuckled. "I'm actually one of the oldest on the ship now and a lot of the younger kids are looking up to Sprout, can you believe it?"

Looking back up at Florian, she was smiling sadly. "Axel got shot, Florian. In Feroxi. Right through the chest. Collapsed his lung." She bit her bottom lip. "I still can't believe he's alive. Thank god for Maria, she's a doctor we met there, was with us when he got hit." She clenched her jaw as she thought back to that moment.

Oh god. He'd heard about Axel getting shot and his recovery but this! It sounded as if everything was falling apart. Would there even be a maiden to go back to after this?

"Okay." He took a deep breath, gathering up that same composure he'd hold when listening to maidens in need of someone who'd listen when he was their Chaplin. How many of those same people were dead now? 'Focus.' He slid down to the floor right across from Lilith.

"I think we need to share some details. Take me through it from the start."

It took a few hours, but Lilith told him everything. About Gorgon, about Cranston and Elizabeth, everything.

Now sitting next to Florian, back against the wall, she tapped her cigarette ash into an empty beer can, chuckling as she talked about Axel's latest exploits. "Have you ever seen Sprout be territorial? There's this other kid, Jesse, and I swear, every time him and Sprout are in the same room, I think they're gonna fucking throw down. It's hilarious."

She leaned against Florian's shoulder. He had listened through the entire thing, asking for clarification in some areas, but he heard the whole thing. "Anyway, I'm just blathering on now, so what do you think? Think we're all screwed?"

It was a lot to process but they got through it with the help of Irena's beer. They could ask for forgiveness later. Some of the news had knocked him for six. Warren's death, the loss of Cranston and Elizabeth. He scratched at the bullet wound in his shoulder he'd earned in their escape. It really did feel like years ago. And he'd done such a good job of keeping that promise. This was threatening to get overwhelming very fast.

"I don't even know any more." He sighed. "Best I can think is just take one day at a time. Do what we can and move on to the next thing." With advice like that it was good he wasn't doing it for a living any more. "Hey, so if you have girls his age now, does that mean you're not Axel's favourite any more?"

"Please, I'm amazing." Lilith scoffed as she took a long swig from her can of beer. "I feel sorry for the poor girl who ends up with that boy, with me and Pixie around, she's gonna have a tough time." She smiled as she took a long drag from her cigarette. "I suppose I'll have to let him go eventually, I can't take care of him forever." Her face softened as she looked up at Florian. "How about you, are you okay now after our talk earlier?"

It was good to tell someone about everything that had happened, it had been so long since she had just talked to someone.

"Okay is a long way away, Lil. I'm staging a coup against my own family, watching my old home tear itself apart and now I'm dragging you into it." He looked down to see the frown she'd given him over that and tried to cut any further argument off. "I know you want to stay. I know I can't make you go, but I never liked the thought of you being in danger. And I hate it even more now." He sighed. They were running low on booze now too.

"Can I get one of those?" He asked pointing to her pack of cigarettes.

Removing a cigarette from the pack, she handed it to him with her lighter. "I've always been in danger, Florian, ever since I was a kid playing cards with old drunk men." She took a deep drag of her own cigarette. "That didn't change when I started robbing people for a living, you know?" She smirked wryly as she looked at the man from the corner of her eye.

"Let me put it another way, would you rather I were hundreds of miles away, getting in trouble where you can't keep an eye on me, or here, where you can watch my back?" She sighed the words. "I was bored out my damn mind back on the Maiden, I felt useless." She narrowed her eyes, the cigarette hanging loosely from her lips. "I hate being bored, Florian."

His heartbeat suddenly felt a lot heavier all of a sudden. The way she smiled as she said it, the mischievous glint in her eye. It made him uncomfortably aware of just how naked his neck felt. 'Oh don't be ridiculous, you idiot.'

"You know something." He started, taking simple pleasure in working a lighter for himself again and shattering four years of cleaner breathing. "Me too." He took a long drag before taking the cigarette away, holding it between two fingers. "Guess I was never meant for a life of the cloth." It was good while it lasted though.

Lilith averted her eyes, tapping her cigarette ash into the beer can. In the years she had known him, not once did he fail to come across as genuine. Even in light of what lead him onto the Maiden, she still wasn't convinced he was anything but the priest she secretly had a thing for.

Brushing her fringe from her eyes, tucking it behind her ear, she looked up at the man. When she was this close, it was difficult not to notice the notch in his ear, the fresh scars dotted all over his arms and neck. "You know, I still can't picture you as anything else." She smiled warmly. "You think that part of your life is over now, that you failed, but you haven't. Not even a little bit." She looked up at the ceiling as she leaned her head back against the wall. "A priest can't save this place, you know that, and instead of hiding away, on the other side of the continent, doing what you were doing, you decided to stay here and try and fix things. You don't need to wear the collar to remind you that you've changed, Florian." She looked at him from the corner of her eyes, a small smirk crawling her lips as she gripped the cigarette between her teeth. "I'll keep reminding you though, just in case."

"I really wish you'd stop being so nice sometimes." He slumped against the wall. It really was too much sometimes, did she make Pixie feel this way too? How was anyone supposed to live up to this? She had far more faith in him than he ever had.

It was contagious though. She could make him believe that it was all possible.

"It's more than anyone here deserves." He turned his head towards her. They were so close to each other. Just a cigarette in the way really.


Lilith's heart fluttered in her chest. When did he get so close? "It's not a matter of what people deserve." She took a long drag, burning the cigarette to the filter. Without looking away from Florian, she blew the smoke from the corner of her mouth as she stubbed out the cigarette into the can.

Shying away from the man slightly, Lilith looked down at the scars on Florian's arm. "You don't owe these people anything, but they still need your help, and that's what separates us from the other selfish bandit cunts out there." She glanced up at Florian. "It's not gonna be easy, but it's the right thing to do."

"And that's what we do."

She should have been the the spiritual one of the group. A few short words and she'd summed it all up perfectly. No grey, no uncertainty, just the way ahead. Clear as day in a line he could walk happily. It wouldn't be easy but he could live with it and still look her in the eye with pride.

He pulled back and returned to smoking, a content smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. Nothing else needed saying from him. His certainty was coming back in force.

Nodding gently, Lilith smiled warmly. "That's what we do." Resting the side of her head on Florian's shoulder, she chuckled. "And if it all goes tits up, we can leg it back to the Maiden and make up some elaborate story, involving assassins, and swords, and possibly robots." She sighed, as her face softened.

A sad smile curling her lips, she turned her head, to look up at the man. "When this is all over and done with, do you think you'll come back South?" This was one of the questions at the forefront of her mind. "I'll understand if you don't, I can't imagine things are gonna be hunky dory right away, you'll need to keep an eye on things."

"I don't know if that would be a good idea. There are plenty of people in this city with good reason to want me dead, Lil. The name Bejic is a loaded one these days. I think the city would heal easier without me. If this goes well, then the right people will be left in charge. Frostfall can have a time of peace and profit. And I can go back to the grave, a bad memory."

Guess that only leaves one place for me to go. Besides," He turned to her the same way she'd done to him. "Someone's got to watch your back." He smirked.

Lilith would be lying if she said she wasn't delighted by that little bit of news. Doing a poor job of hiding her relief, she nudged Florian with her shoulder. "That's great! So, will you go back to being the priest slash cook slash therapist, or is badass Florian who smokes and doesn't follow no one's rules here to to stay?"

If she was lucky, maybe he'd be both.

"Ha!" He hadn't realised how much he'd missed that weird southern gangster way of talking that the maidens liked to use. "Guess I'll have to work that stuff out as I go. I turned in my collar and I've already broken the no drinking rule. And the no beating people up rule." He added on awkwardly. "I might be a little rusty but I think I can get back into the swing of things with a little training."

"You sure you can even perform anymore?" The girl teased, a smug look on her face. "I mean, it's been a long time, I can understand if you just don't have the stamina you used to." Ah the sexual innuendo, how she missed it.

"That's where the training comes in." He shoulder shoved her right back.

"Yeah?" Lilith pulled her legs to her chest, resting the side of her head on her knees as she smiled slyly. "What did you have in mind?"

It felt like alarm bells were sounding off in Florian's head as he felt the need to take a deep breath. What was the problem? All the maiden's had tried this game on him in the past and he'd shrugged it off before. Except he'd been collared back then, anything serious had been off the table.

Now... 'It is still off the table! She's a friend! She's practically the captain's daughter! She is putting her life on the line helping you settle your own shit and you will not think about her that way!' It was too late of course.

"Well I guess I'll need to go through the steps with the new bloods and- and get used to using a rifle again. And I can finally see what all the fuss is about Valhalla." He rambled slightly.

"Well I can always help you with the rifle training, I guess." Lilith sighed as she stretched her arms over her head, arching her back. "We can do that here, no need to wait until we're back on the Maiden." Rotating the stiffness from one of her shoulders, she tilted her head curiously, a smirk curling her lips as Florian began to squirm.

"Yeah that would be good." Florian trailed off as she stretched out, showing off just how the shirt she was wearing clang to her figure. 'This is nothing new. You can handle this. Just chill out.' It wasn't as easy as it used to be, apparently recent events had put him off his repression game. It took Florian a moment to catch himself looking and very obviously glanced away.

"So, now we're all caught up, what do you wanna do for the rest of the day?" She stretched her legs out. "I don't want to impose on your friend too much, we should go pick up some food. I brought some carbon with me, and if the price of those clothes I bought are anything to go by." She nodded over at her back and coat. "It should last us a looong time." Without bending her knees, Lilith leaned forward, stretching out her arms as she touched the tips of her toes.

"This cold has made me all stiff." She mumbled as she held the stretch. "But I guess I better get used to it."

'Stop... just... stop... please...' Florian looked on with empty eyes as she bent over in front of him. Apparently there would be stiffness that they'd both have to get used to.

"That sounds like a good idea. Before we eat her out of house and home." He finished off the rest of his drink and got to his feet, turning around to make sure he had everything gathered and stretching out the kink the wall had left in his back. His shoulder was still a little warm from where her head had been leaning on it. Far more fun from the ache of old knife and bullet wounds.

"We'll grab something to eat and get started on some training. You've been out of it a while, so it might be a good idea to go over some of the basics." Pushing herself to her feet, she rubbed the stiffness out the back of her neck. "Sound good?" She crossed her arms over her chest.

If this was him out of shape, she couldn't imagine him at his prime. Well.

She would try.

A sly smile curled the girls lips at the thought.