Chapter 42:
In the Dark
It was a long day after that, with an enormous amount of work to be done cataloguing all of the weapons and processing all of the prisoners.
A few of the less hardened ones were selling out anyone and everyone they could in hopes of getting lighter sentences when all was said and done. The task force made a few more arrests that very day, even in some of the fancier neighborhoods as decades of corruption were unearthed.
While the Aegis toiled Cordelia and Christine had taken it upon themselves to feed everyone, since they were operating out of the hive as much as the local Aegis office.
Renaldo would have a lot of baking to do the following day, as even Bruti was full.
As it turned out Cordelia’s worry was unnecessary, as not a single Hornet was lost, Oldeera and her hive having learned the harsh lesson regarding flamers in the past.
When night finally fell, Nameless was dog tired.
Together with his bond-mates they sought their bunks in the Aegis compound. Before they got there though Grant took him to one side to check in with him.
“Hell of a day cadet, you doing alright?”
Stifling a yawn, Nameless shrugged, unsure of what to say.
Grant nodded, scratching at his neck.
“Yeah, it was a hell of a day, we won’t be doing much tomorrow. Bruti is going to be asleep until well into the morning, so don’t expect to be up at dawn or anything.” The training officer stifled a yawn; “I sure won’t be.”
Still Nameless didn’t say anything, just nodded.
Grant grimaced slightly.
“Look, I know this is kind of awkward, we’ve known each other for like three minutes, but I am responsible for you. Today was… way more than any cadet I’ve ever worked with had to face all at once, so if you need to talk or anything, I’m here.”
He was right, it was awkward.
Fortunately, Volka specialized in awkward.
Grant yelped and stood on his tip toes when the angel gave him a monstrous wedgie from behind.
“My thanks for your concern Aegis Semper, but worry not for my husband, his sanity remains unshaken. Besides it is past time you should be in bed. Unless I am mistaking her, I believe the lovely Linda has intentions for you before you will get any sleep tonight.” She suggested archly while he struggled to fix his underpants situation.
Grant froze as he processed her words, then a slow smile spread across her face.
“Right, well, anyways, I’ll see you in the morning.”
Volka watched him walk away, a slight smirk on her lips.
“I like him.”
When they got to their quarters they found the others, trying to make sense of the day each in their own way.
Milly hadn’t let go of Erica for what seemed like hours.
The Katje didn’t mind as she boasted of her achievements on the field.
“Totally saved Miranda’s life!” She said for perhaps the fourth time.
Ophelia smiled at her, but the light of it didn’t reach her eyes as she dwelled on the patient she had been unable to save.
Drained from his earlier ordeal with the widowed monster girl, and with the chaotic swirl of emotions coming from Erica, Nameless found it a bit hard to focus, but he managed to get a feel for Ophelia’s mental state.
What he found there made no sense.
Stubborn pride.
Lots of it.
“Ophelia?” He asked.
Meanwhile Nina, fed up with Erica’s boasting, seized her by the ankle and threw her into bed before she and Milly jumped on her, the three of them finding an outlet for the Katje’s manic energy.
The Flutterby had to tear her eyes away from the sudden threesome taking place on the bed.
“Dearheart?”
His eyes were unfocused as he puzzled over her emotional state.
There was regret for the loss of her patient, but she had wisdom enough to know that she and the other medics did everything they could.
But that swell of pride inside her made no sense to him.
“Why were you dreading coming here?” He asked suddenly as he remembered her anxiety when he told her of their mission.
Her smile faltered slightly, her eyes going a bit distant.
“As you know, many of my people live in the fancier parts of Algrade. I grew up here.”
With the context she provided he could see it now: her pride was that of a child that had succeeded despite the disapproval of her parents.
She tsked at him though as he thought to explore further.
“Now now, don’t you think there are more pressing things we ought to be doing?”
Despite his fatigue, the looks she and Volka were giving him were enough to bring him fully awake.
__________
It was close to midnight, and the compound was quiet.
With the pain of her injury keeping her from sleeping, Miranda stole away from her bond-mates intending on catch some air in the compound’s yard.
She didn’t make it there though.
On her way out she heard quiet sobbing coming from one of the guest bunks.
Rebecca was crying her heart out, though she was apparently trying to be quiet about it.
“Fuck.” Miranda muttered.
She was hardly the tenderest touch, but if anyone in the city of Algrade needed her to be, it was the courageous young bunny.
With one knuckle she rapped on the door.
The sobbing halted and silence reigned for several seconds.
“Wh-who’s there?” The bunny’s voice sounded from inside.
Plain as could be, the operative recognized the sound of someone trying to keep it together.
“It’s Miranda, can I come in?”
There was another beat of silence, then some rustling.
“Just a second!”
Everything about the situation had her at her most patient, so she waited without complaint.
It was a good twenty seconds later before the door opened to reveal the Lapine’s bruised face, her eyes red-rimmed from her tears.
“How you holding up kiddo?”
“I’m okay.” She answered right away.
Girl’s got moxie.
Miranda smiled with one side of her mouth at the Lapine standing in the door.
“Can I come in? Little weird hanging out in the hall like this.”
“Oh! O-of course.” The monster girl turned away to allow Miranda to step inside.
The bunny took a moment to wipe at her eyes when she thought the older woman wasn’t looking.
The gruff operative sighed.
“Yeah, you’re not okay.”
Becks whirled to face Miranda, surprise and fear all over her face.
“I-she!” She seemed to trip over whatever she was trying to say, her mouth working as tears began to fall; “She was going to kill me! I can still feel the g-gun, here.”
With a violent gesture she drove two of her fingers against the side of her head where Bethany Sinclair had earlier held the sabotaged pistol.
“And now, n-now all I can hear is those wolves! Tearing her to pieces!”
Damn you Lilly.
Miranda’s eyes narrowed as she mentally cursed out the pack-leader, but she stayed focused on Rebecca.
“You feel raw? Like if someone made a loud noise you’d die?”
The Lapine’s head nodded emphatically.
“Yes! It’s like I’m going mad with all these different feelings, I keep seeing her pull the trigger! I keep seeing her kill me! I keep dying over and over! I don’t- I can’t, I can’t breath!”
She gasped and sobbed as she began to hyperventilate, quickly devolving into a mess of a Lapine.
Ignoring her own injury, Miranda grabbed hold of her as she fell apart.
She didn’t shush her as one would a child; instead she gave her a much needed lifeline by simply squeezing her tight, one arm around her waist and the other hand cupping the back of her head.
The fragile creature in her arms broke her heart as she clutched at her, wracked with violent and desperate sobs.
Miranda waited a few minutes, mentally cursing herself out for having sent the untrained bunny into such a dangerous situation.
It was several minutes before Rebecca regained control of herself, holding the operative tight the entire time, their breasts pressed firmly together.
In the silence of the room their breathing seemed to synchronize, and the embrace softened, then heated.
Recognized the potential for a serious mistake, Miranda finally pulled her head off of Rebecca’s shoulder.
But before she could say anything, the Lapine’s lips were on hers.
Wet with her tears, but warm and soft nonetheless.
The kiss ended quickly, though the heated potential of the moment hung over them, the pain in Miranda’s side helped her keep her priorities straight.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that, I’m so stupid.” Rebecca murmured.
Miranda laughed as she felt her lips, though she stopped when she felt the Lapine flinch in her arms.
“It’s alright, honestly. It’s actually a common reaction to trauma. And it’s not like I don’t find you attractive, but now isn’t really-”
“I know! I’m sorry, I just… I just want someone to love me. I feel so alone now. The only person I’ve ever truly loved, turned out to be a… a-”
“An evil cunt?”
Rebecca swallowed, then nodded as she smiled shakily.
“And now I’m in an Aegis compound, with an actual Aegis operative. My whole life I wanted to be here, but not like this, never like this.”
Miranda could feel her going to pieces again, and she was glad that she hadn’t released her when the bunny had stolen that kiss.
She allowed time for the monster girl to calm down before speaking again.
“I’m sorry, I should have realized that with all of the wounded… you were holding yourself together well enough with Kala, so I didn’t see how badly you needed to talk to someone.”
“I-I’m okay-”
“The hell you are.” She muttered, finally breaking away from the timid bunny; “With all the shit you’ve been through, you have to see someone. Now.”
Rebecca almost looked ready to panic again at the older woman’s words, but she shifted into confusion when Miranda let out a bitter laugh.
“Fortunately for you, I know someone more than qualified. Let’s go and wake his ass up.”
__________
Lipton Falls was a bustling mining town, east of Greyhaven and northwest of Garland. It had been enjoying a recent boom when rich deposits of copper were discovered in the local iron mine.
But even with its newfound success it was still a small town, and didn’t have much of a night life.
Which is why no alarm was sounded, no warning was given, and no one was spared when a host of Tenebrae, led by a demonic Chimera and a black-faced Amazon, descended on the sleepy hamlet.
The thunder of clawed feet and hooves as the wave of dark monsters poured into the village was soon accompanied by screams.
They moved quickly, spreading out and breaking into several houses at a time and within an hour the only ones alive were the unfortunate monster girls that Evadne was intent on claiming.
Them... and a single human woman, kneeling in shock over the corpses of her two infant sons in the middle of the street.
She had tried to flee with them, but carrying them both she wasn’t fast enough and the poor souls were torn from her arms and killed before her eyes.
Now the Tenebrae swarmed all around her, though they did not touch her.
The dark creatures parted and the shadowy Chimera suddenly loomed over her.
Evadne considered the woman’s grief for a long time, an echo of her own, inflicted so long ago, yet felt keenly every time Jonathan turned a monster girl.
Eventually she knelt at the bereft mother’s side and placed her claws gently on the back of her neck.
She spoke, and her voice was not as it once was: now it echoed with a deep and hollow darkness.
“This is familiar to me. The sense that what you are seeing cannot be real. The helplessness, the hopelessness. Everything that you are feeling was all I knew once upon a time.”
The woman said nothing.
Her world had ended with the broken bodies before her and she couldn’t take her eyes off of them.
Evadne nodded slowly at the non-response.
“You are fortunate, for you get what I was denied.”
She flexed her dark claws and the woman didn’t even whimper as her neck broke.
With a tenderness that stood at odds with her actions, the Chimera lay the woman down with her children and finished her thought.
“You get to die with your babies.”