▬▬ι═══════ﺤ
EVEN IF SHE SAID ANY WORDS, I DON'T THINK I WOULD HAVE LISTENED. Sylvie tends to stick to her opinion - being the most stubborn person I know - and so listening to her would have either broken the last tether holding me together or put me in a sniper-shooting frenzy killing everyone in my surroundings and then myself.
Okay, maybe that's dramatic. But when you grow up how I did - how the three of us did - you tend to gain that sort of mindset. All or nothing. Me or them. Life or death.
Besides. Dealing with seeing Sylvie after so long (especially when she definitely thought I was dead. Not like she'd really tried searching for me) is hardly anything compared to what I have to deal with right now.
Now that Mars - planet girl - is dealt with and returned (I know she's immune, but how did she get through the arena? Seriously) I can focus on the other things tainting my life. Such as EVA. Specifically; Laurel.
Who I had an agreement with. Who, when thinking she got what she wanted - that being Blake - didn't return her end of the deal, and killed a portion of my people.
Teaming up with EVA was not the way to go, apparently.
And look. I'm not an idiot. In fact I'm pretty fucking smart - which should be a given considering all I've done - and working with Laurel? I never expected that to go well. I didn't intend it either. But I just thought...I don't know, I assumed I had a little more time before it all went to shit.
Clearly Laurel was going to continue to be as self interested as she's always been, no matter how she benefits or what sort of allies she could gain no matter how useful they could potentially be.
"We're going to have to kill her..." Seb mutters on our way back home. It's going to get dark soon. I assume we'll have to spend the night somewhere near and resume our journey in the morning considering we spent most of today walking Mars all the way back.
Vee chuckles and rolls her eyes.
"He's right." I mutter.
Vee instantly stops walking and stares blankly at me, "What? You're kidding - she's the most difficult person to-"
"Not the most." I interrupt.
Vee takes her words back in an instant, the silence shows. She huffs out a breath before continuing, "She's dangerous enough. Enough that it'll be hard for us to take her."
"Not impossible." I tilt my head.
"If anyone can do it, it's us. Surely." Seb points out.
Vee holds up her finger to Seb mid air, not even glancing in his direction, "No words from you. Gray, listen to me, you know how Laurel works. We may have weapons - so many groups now have weapons - but EVA has science. They have continuous farming and resources, they are the one group of people that won't be wiped out, we're just..."
"We're just...?"
"Teenagers." She scoffs, throwing her hands in the air, "We're a bunch of teenagers - mostly - who ride motorcycles and shoot guns and-"
"And run the Slums." I interrupt again, "And evoke fear on those who remain - those who can feel fear. We're teenagers who managed to do that. I mean fuck Vee, the arena. That doesn't impress you enough?"
"Yeah!" She actually laughs, "Yeah, it impresses me but not enough. You," She steps forward and pushes me, "Of all people should know that. Sylvie got it right when she left-"
"Don't say her name." I warn. And my tone? It's deafening. Vee understands now she's always allowed to be upset with me, angry, whatever - but that tone means I'm putting my foot down. "Just because you've seen her for two seconds doesn't mean she's not off limits still."
Vee's eyes hold that fire. They're narrow and firm - but she holds her chin high and nods nonetheless, "Sorry."
I hold her stare, "Good."
"Guys, stop comparing dick sizes right now please? Let's get the fuck home and talk about this in the morning when we're actually running on sleep. Sound good?" Seb claps his hands together.
I nod, "Sounds good. Vee?"
"Yeah, sounds good or whatever." She mumbles, picking up our pace once again and kicking a pebble on her way. I think of Mars at the movement. Of the way she's either always fidgeting or thinking about something entirely too deep for her or readjusting that disgustingly beautiful bright annoying red fiery hair...
I need help. And more than the familial issues kind.
I was born eighteen years ago to two very terrible people. A mother and a father who didn't love each other, not normally at least, and decided having three children was the best idea for a couple of emotionally stunted people.
Before Sylvie was even born they had already decided what they wanted to do to the world. How they wanted to take over. Start a new civilisation with grander, more produced and practically artificial people composed solely to their expectations and liking.
My mother and Richard Yamamoto. Both from striving and rich families - that also had ties to Japan's Edo period. What can I say? We're royalty. I mean not entirely...but I grew up in a home with flowing streams and small bridges in the backyard. Sophisticated enough to be royal for me.
They aren't entirely the worst I suppose. Don't get me wrong, they're terrible - all it took for them to turn against the world was meeting Laurel, but they could have been worse...well, they could have been Laurel. That's the only worse. I really wouldn't have anything to defend them with if she didn't exist. But that woman is...how do I put this?
If fines still existed, every time she were dropped off somewhere by her fancy little EVA drivers, said drivers would get said fine for littering.
Sylvie though...she's everything. She was everything. She was my parent. More of that than an older sister, I guess given the almost two decade age gap. I'l l give her credit where it's due...she definitely did try to fight for us. She tried to stop them. From either the physical torture or the verbal comments that soon became so natural they stopped feeling like bullets. She tried. She did.
But then at the peak of it? When it was the absolute worst? She left. She left the both of us, and never returned.
I was seven. Alex was five. Sylvie was twenty-four. I may have been young, and perhaps most kids at that age wouldn't fully comprehend the notion of being left - abandoned - but it was pretty simple to me. My parents being as emotionless as they were forced me to inerpret the most miniscule expressions.
When Sylvie smiled at Alex and I, it looked wrong. The corners of her mouth weren't matching the light behind her eyes - and only three minutes after she left, when Alex thought she was coming back, I realised I wouldn't see her again. Not for a long time at least.
We did see each other, it turns out. On my fifteenth birthday mother decided She'd start implementing all my training on a then thirteen year old Alex. It gave me a break, sure. It also put the on person I had left to protect in danger.
For the first time out of three times, I went to the police. I told them about what our parents were doing to us. I told them about the crimes my parents had committed, the people they'd killed, the unwarranted land they owned and experimented on.
All I got out of that first trip however was a ride back home to the mansion, and my wrists chained from dangling metal on the ceiling of one of the bathrooms by my parents as punishment like I was some prisoner in the medieval times.
Sylvie came the day after, not intentionally, but instead was at the police precinct the second time out of the three times I went.
We saw each other. She stared. I blinked. And then I left. There was an understanding there. hat this was how our dynamic now worked. That after eight years we'd continue on, with her doing whatever and me taking her place, the role she held, until she left. Which is why I couldn't leave. Because if I did, our parents would put it on Alex...
...which they managed to do anyway.
▬▬ι═══════ﺤ
"I'm sorry I brought up Sylvie." Vee tells me later that night, Seb fast asleep, the two of us passing a cigarette as we stare out the glass of the now abandoned McDonald's window in our booth.
"'s fine." I respond quietly, blowing out the smoke and passing it back over to her.
Vee takes a smaller puff, twiddling the cigarette between her fingers as she continues to look at me, "Any good memories of her?"
It's a gamble. She knows it is. She's not allowed to talk about Sylvie. Not on her own, not without me bringing her up. But I guess the only way you can show you care for someone, is asking those questions - especially the ones you're not meant to.
"She used to...well, that one's not really a good memory." I hold my hand out, waiting.
Vee takes another puff before handing it over, "Then tell me anyway."
"How long have I known you now?" I ask, tilting my head.
She shrugs, "Maybe a little over a year?"
That sounds about right. I picked her up off the streets around a month before the apocalypse started. Selfishly, I wouldn't have saved her if I didn't know she had fire in her. Saw her send an uppercut flying towards a man twice her height. She wasn't going to win that fight obviously, but the will was still there. That's what I look for. Fire. Vee has it. Seb does. Every biker I know does - and most importantly, they have loyalty.
The most amount of fire I think I've ever seen in someone was Mars though. From the moment I met her, trapped between that labyrinth of cars as she stared at me defiantly through those lashes despite her lack of weaponry and despite me.
"Yeah," I blow out some smoke, "That checks out. Guess over a year is enough for you to get personal stuff."
"I already have personal stuff on you." She raises a brow, "Sylvie for example. And your other sister."
"You don't even know my other sister's name." I scoff.
"Tell me."
"I would," I watch as the remnants of the cigarette dwindle between my fingers, "But that would be idiotic. I can't give you anything others would use against me."
"What?" She lets out a single laugh, "Gray, you know if I were tied down to a chair and tortured I wouldn't give anything up about you or our family." The bikers she means. Growing up as a homeless kid, Vee considers most important connections her blood relatives.
"And me the same for you," I reassure her blankly, "But no. Her name is too important - even for my most trusted."
Vee scoffs and leans back, "You wouldn't even tell Mars?"
I pull out another cigarette from the box sitting lazily on the table between us, "No."
"You sure about that? Because we just walked an entire sun's worth of time to get her safely home." Vee calls me out as I life my lighter to the tip of the cigarette, placing it between my teeth.
"I have honor." I shrug, "She got through the arena. That's what she asked for."
"We both know you don't have honor. Your entire fucking being is filled with hate and pure disrespect." Vee lets out a laugh, her tone light. It's not meant to be offensive despite the implications. And...she's right.
I'd race a blind person if it got me what I wanted. I'd kill someone even if they were eons more disadvantaged compared to me. I'd use anything against anyone. Anything. Honor doesn't associate itself with me. I use whenever I please though, like the true self-interested asshole I am.
"Which is why you won't get her name." I point out.
"Fine," Vee sighs, "Just tell me the thing you were going to tell me then. I've known you over a year remember, I've earned that. Maybe after a decade I'll get her name."
I scoff, taking another long drag before passing the cigarette over to her grabby fingers across the table, "When we were young Sylvie created this game." I manage to stop myself from wincing at saying her name out loud, "She would come up with a number. Which really translated to a number of hours - yknow, four, five, whatever - and whatever that number was, we'd have to count down in our heads the entire time of it in silence, in a hiding spot. If we were able to get to the end of the number, we won."
Vee pays attention carefully as I explain, which is nice I suppose, but in reality makes me uncomfortable. I've never talked about my home life with anyone before, not anyone alive at least. When it's over, I don't want her to...hug me or something. I don't want apologies. I'm already uncomfortable enough.
"Obviously now I know," I laugh bitterly, "That we were hiding from our parents. When they were extra angry or something. That number would be how long Sylvie estimated they'd be angry before until it was safe to come out. One time she said eight hours. Yes, I counted twenty-eight-thousand seconds that day."
"I'm sorry." Vee whispers, cigarette completely forgotten in her right hand. I watch as we lose embers, sort of wishing to reach out and make up for that missed amount of drawls - but now's not the time.
"Okay." I nod.
"Do you need a hug?"
"God, no."
"Alright."
Finally, she hands it back over. I finish the second one. I could be in the mood for another, but chain smoking will only waist our current box.
"You jealous of Mars?" I ask.
"What?" Vee asks in a surprised voice.
"Dunno," I shrug, "Just seemed upset I helped her out is all."
"I'm not jealous," Vee shakes her head, "I suppose a little envious you're so infatuated with her when it took me a long time to even get a single story about your childhood out of you-"
"Not infatuated." I tut.
"Oh, baby," She coos, "Sometimes I forget you're only eighteen." (She's only a year older than me, dumbass) "Need tips on how to kiss when the time comes? You can use your hand as practice-"
"Alright!" I cut her off, holding my hands up to my ears and covering them, "Goodnight."
▬▬ι═══════ﺤ
It takes us approximately seven hours before we're back home in the morning. The time sits in the early afternoon, and I would honestly like to take a nap, a rest, anything before moving on to the planning stage for what we have in store - but I'm bombarded immediately when we step through the threshold of the top floor.
"Gray!" Vion is immediately upon me, "Your little fucking prisoners came in and almost killed Jaxon and-"
"Calm down." I mutter, walking further into the room and actually allowing myself to unpack. Fuck, that feels good. No more sniper on my back, no more backpack, no more helmet - I'm completely weightless for a moment it feels like I'm flying.
"Blake," He grits, "The one EVA wants - he's gone and-"
Jaxon jumps in, "And he stole my motorcycle!"
"We'll get you a new one." I drop down onto one of the black couches, resting my head against the back of it and looking up, letting out a deep breath.
"Gray," Vion comes to me more calmly now, "How do we retaliate? We can't let them-"
"Yes we can." I send a glare (although it's more tired than anything), "EVA betrayed our alliance, who cares if Blake escaped or not."
"He threatened Jaxon." Vion bites.
I look to Jaxon - who looks fucking fine by the way - before inhaling deeply like I'm dealing with a child, "Your boyfriend is okay, Vion."
"Ha ha, Gray made a gay joke - let us all rejoice." Seb says sarcastically before dropping down on the couch beside me - having made the same long journey.
"Don't try and distract me Gray - just because you can get distracted with that little fucking redhead doesn't mean the rest of us have to sit down and let those ACE fuckers walk all over us. They're supposed to fear us, remember?" Vion continues his relentless verbal attacks.
"They do fear us." I look down from the ceiling and at him, glare now prominent and not tired, "Everyone does. Even EVA, a little bit. We're threats. You know that. Just because you got robbed - with zero scars to prove it by the way - doesn't mean you're suddenly dickless."
"Gray-"
"Vion." I return.
Having a leader younger than you can often make people feel either mocked or like they're better than their boss. With us, it's different. Everyone here - everyone I've recruited, saved, offered - they don't give a shit about my age. They understand my authority. They know I get the job done. Which is why Vion drops it, Jaxon following behind him. The rest of us in the around the large floor continue on, the once silence almost ecoable room now returning to muffled chatter that there's no spectacle to watch.
Of course I only get a moment's peace.
"Gray?" Uma - one of the bikers - voices in front of me.
"Mm?"
"The doctor is here to see you." She answers.
I sigh before sitting up right, thanking Uma, and walking over to the door that has two of our bikers beside it, standing in front of a shorter brunette girl.
"I'll take it from here." I tell them, voice still sounding somewhat exhausted.
"Gray." Ella nods.
"Ella." I return.
"ACE thinks I'm on a medical run right now. Need any check-ups while I'm here?"
I look behind me and into the room, "No, we're all good for now."
"I have some...news. Information. That I think could help us." She tells me, finally walking in.
"You travelled here on your own?" I ask as we walk through my people (a lot, like a house party sort of amount, not including the bikers out right now on rations and watch duty) and towards the Quiet Room (as we like to call it). Basically the room where shit gets done.
"Yes." She nods, "Took the safe route though which is why I'm late - you look really fucking tired, did you have to listen to Laurel blabber or something?"
"Something like that." I think of my dead men and women lying on the pavement outside our arena.
"Whatever," She shakes her head, "I'd like to be as quick as possible. Anais can't know I'm here."
Right. The leader of ACE - sorry, one quarter of the leaders - whatever, we all know Anais really pulls the strings. Ella, their doctor, is surprisingly loyal to them. It was only recently she started trading information and working with us behind their backs.
"Go on." I urge.
"We found an immune girl." She tells me, probably waiting for some sort of reaction.
"...Mars?"
"Yes - wait, how did you know? Gray if you've been-"
"Only found out recently." I hold my hands up in defence, "In fact we just dropped her off at ACE. Basically."
"Have you seen Blake and Sylvie?" She asks very quickly.
"They'll be back too." I nod.
"Fuck. Thank god. Especially that Mars girl - do you know what I could make with someone like her? We've barely even had her half a week so I haven't been able to run blood tests yet but soon I might be able to figure out-"
"Nope."
"Excuse me?"
"Nope." I shrug.
"Gray." She sputters, looking confused.
"You're not experimenting on her. End of story." I shrug, sitting down on one of the old leather arm chairs left over in this giant rich-man's apartment.
"Gray, I could make a cure-"
"That's what EVA says." I scoff, "THat's what they're trying to do - really want to be like them?"
"Of course not - but this is different, we've actually found the first naturally immune-"
"Doesn't matter." I interrupt firmly, firmly enough she stops talking, "You do that to Mars you'll be doing the same thing EVA's doing to your wife."
That gets Ella to stop talking.
You see, the reason she's joined us was because ACE wasn't doing anything to go up against EVA. They retreated and kept to their zones despite the chaos and violence EVA has caused, not fighting back. Ella's wife, however, is currently in EVA. With tubes attached to her arms and nostrils and a machine next to her hospital bed - since she's one of the victims EVA chose to experiment on.
Ella wants her back.
The bikers want to take down the tyranny thing EVA's attempting very soon.
I want Alex.
We all work splendidly. We promise revenge. Long ago, I was attempting to do it the easy way. The simple, secret way.
Laurel, recently, fucked that up.
Now we're doing it the messy way.
▬▬ι═══════ﺤ
AHHH ARCANE S2 AND SWEET HOME S2 HAVE DATES NOW YESSSS
Hope you guys liked Gray's POV, also the lore we received in this chapter. More plot twists to come, you guys know I love those.
Don't think you're safe because it's been a while since I killed Holland off, I've merely lulled you into a false sense of security ;)
Ella's missing wife:
- Juana.