subscription Book #1 (April Weeks 1-2) Chapter 3

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Chapter 3
Double Cross at the museum

“Did you have a bad dream boss?” The dragonborn named Myky said jokingly giving Vash a sort of impish grin showing an array of polished alabaster white pointed teeth (well as far as a dragonborn could.) “Or was that just your eternal hangover you have every bloody day keeping you in a daze?” It took a moment to register those words but only a fraction of a second to realize it was just one of many insults of the dragonborn’s sarcastic wit and guiltless charm that he was so famous ‘among seven countries and among seventy-seven skirts.’
“Shut up Myky.” He instinctively said knowing all too well what he meant to joke about his addition to alcohol. But it was true, for two years and maybe more he had been living inside a bottle; and that bottle was more often than not empty to the last drop. And today was just one of those days when he had been drunk first thing at midnight getting liquored up at the most colorful dive he could find and he would continue to drink until the afternoon. Rosh said he would always sing a ‘Redeemer’s Lullaby?’ More like he was singing a ‘Whiskey Lullaby.’
But he did feel terrible how much did he drink at the inn? He wondered to himself as the aircar flew high above the giant mega-city. Vash didn’t know if his splitting headache and his stomach churning its way into a knot was the result of the whiskey he didn’t remember ingesting before he and Rosy meet up with the others or whether it was some physical aftershock of the pain he went through in the dream he just had. But it wasn’t just a dream it had really happened he had the incarnum scars to prove it.
Vash held his head up from the third seat of the air car where the others were sitting in the passenger and second row seats with Nicc driving and Rosh beside him giving him directions. As least the old cook was good for a few things around here he Vash had the brawn and the street-smarts but he had the wisdom. He had been though it all seen it all and lived to tell about it and after tonight he would have enough to retire on and would be one of the few mercs in existence to have bought the farm and lived into old age.
Vash wondered what was to become of them all after Rosh was gone as he looked out into the eternally expansive self contained city of gold called Xion. What was to become of him, would he crawl back into a bottle and spend his share of the money on an eternal fountain of booze and whiskey? He looked out into the rain as it beaded on the aircar’s back window panel and mixed with the exotic neon lights and golden glowing skyscrapers of the city and wondered: Would he ever get over his past or would he just continue to drown it out. When would he face his inner demons and jut move on?
Vash supposed he would always be haunted by his past by the redeemer’s lullaby that played over and over again in his mind like Salina’s music box the day he died. He looked out at the swirling colors of the sleepless city of the interplay of multi colored lights that made up advertisements and signs for brothels and bars that were so beautiful in the rain flying above district 5 of the giant city complex.
He died, and he was dead; but he was resurrected. At the moment of hid saw the abyss the blackness and darkness he had built up for himself made of pure carnal sins of his tormented past he was about to enter the underworld but was pulled back. A robotic Servitor Cleric found his body in the Alavari ruins and resurrected him with divine magic. He was given a second chance by the God-King and the price he would have to pay was to be a redeemer: to wander the world in search of his redemption and gain atonement through good deeds.
He whispered a silent prayer as they coasted through the artificial rain to Adonai, he prayed for something to happen, for the nightmares to end and the void in his heart to be filled. He prayed for some kind of hope some kind of miracle that would usher him on the path of redemption and he prayed that he would once again regain his very soul. He prayed for himself; maybe for forgiveness, maybe to truly start walking the redeemer’s path; he prayed to a god he didn’t believe in for atonement he didn’t deserve. He prayed for himself because no one else would.
They landed on top of a service platform that would be sure to be out of the way of the security cameras and there Rosh would give his briefing to the rest of the group. Vash’s head was splitting and all the while Rosh was explaining that they would crawl into the air vents over the statue room where there would be no security inside the air ducts. Rosh Vash and Myky would incapacitate the security measures and Sapphire and Nicc would steal the statue with the security field disabled. It was simple enough but it should work.
They began using magnetic foot and hand pads to scale up the blind spot of the tower where they would be undetected the magnetic hand holds were not the best money could buy and slipped occasionally that irritated Vash and got good hardy laugh from his subordinates who mocked lovingly at the ever-invincible always bad-ass façade that they all knew was a bunch of bullshit. Vash let them laugh and sneer all they wanted too, after today he would be the new Mercenary and chief and then he would have something to laugh about, “You know I’m afraid of heights Nicc.” He joked.
The medium skinned human looked down at the cream-colored skinned Justinian female below him whom Vash had rescued from captivity of a despotic Lich tyrant and despite her affection for the giant of a man she smiled at Nicc bemused. She loved him Vash knew but never admitted it and although he was a good pilot he never made a move; Vash usually just let the two love birds wallow in their own unrequited love. Nicc joked back noting the irony and sarcasm in being afraid of hights in a giant city that was nothing but hights, “Not in this city you’re not.”
They entered the air duct in the broad side of the museum where they would venture forth one group going to the adjacent security room to dispatch the guards quietly and non-violently and the two love birds could go collect the statue so they could get out of crawling though rat droppings and poorly maintained air ducts. It was a museum but it was in district 5 after all, Vash amused himself as he crawled though the duct in which he was barely able to squeeze his bulky mass and his hefty muscled frame.
However once they got to the security center there was nothing to be amused about, there was only death. The two security guards had been slain on their watch their throats cut clean and their innards cut out with a single slice of a artisan crafted blade. What was so surprising, as Rosh and Vash exchanged knowing and understanding glances at one another; was that they had been killed just recently as if the murderer had just now slunk back into the shadows just as they had come thought the air ducts. This was not a museum this was a massacre.
There was no smell, the bodies had only been killed a few moments ago, there was only blood and gore. The two of the museums security patrol had been killed in the precise efficient and elegant fashion of a master swordsman, and one who had killed many times before and saw killing as part of his job and took no pleasure or guilt in it whatsoever. The man or woman who killed these men slaughtered them in a fraction of a second. Vash could see their vacant fearless expressions absent of the realization they had died.
They didn’t even have time to blink an eye…Vash thought to himself looking at the cold calculated way these two men had been slain at their posts without a clue as to what they faced or who they were up against. And what were they up against Vash wondered; nothing that should be underestimated that much was dead certain. There could be no mistakes this time or they all would be dead as these two unfortunate bastards. “What in the nine hells did something like this!? I’m not waiting to find out Vash, I’m calling this mission off; Myky get on the comm. And tell Sapphire and Nicc that we’re out of here STAT!”
“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy boss look!” Myky pointed to the security monitor of the roof of the museum where great battle was taking place between the Sovereign Guard and what appeared to be the unmistakable black leather jackets and red shirts and the blue of officers of the Arsenal Terror and Crime Syndicate. Vash could not believe his eyes, his past had finally caught up with him, he even recognized some of the officers (however when he was involved they were new members of the group he once helped trained) He just hoped Scythe didn’t get the memo.
What did that mean? Was his long lost friend and companion in crime here in the museum!? What would his former best friend (whom he knew since he had just escaped the undercity and was a beggar on the street and Koron was only a fallen Oathkeeper squire) be doing here in this run down museum that held no value to a terrorist like him? What could Scythe and Arsenal be doing here? None of this made any sense to Vash it didn’t add up.
“We’ve been set up Vash!” Rosh exclaimed looking at the carnage that was sweeping the rooftop of the museum skyscraper structure; the battle was fierce between the guards and the terrorists Vash was unsure which side would win (probably the terrorists,) “That damned coward Aves set this whole thing up to blackmail us. That slime ball tipped of f the guard the whole job was a fake to frame us. I don’t know who paid Aves to bur burn us whoever they are they’re as good as dead! I swear it!”
“But wait Rosh, this doesn’t make a damn bit of sense,” Vash pleaded to his teammate pointing at the Arsenal terrorist locked in battle with the Sovereign guardsmen, “If the Sovereign Guard were tipped off why is the Arsenal syndicate up there blowing half the city to smithereens? Why would Arsenal even be involved in this fight if there wasn’t something they wanted out of the museum and look at these bodies, who killed them? Scythe? I see him right up there on the roof top blasting his way through a dozen or so guards with the other Arsenal terrorists. Who killed these men Rosh?”
“I don’t know Vash, but we’re going to find…” Rosh was cut off by first static on the other end of the communication cylinder and then a man’s then a woman’s distinct high pitched screams, Nicc and Sapphire was screaming! Something had gotten to them something that would kill them too if the lingered in this place for very long. Vash felt chills go up his spine and almost wept for his friends. He could hear their tortured screams but could do nothing to save them, who ever killed Sapphire would pay dearly, and that was a promise.
Vash’s blood went cold as he was forced to listen to the losing battle take place in the museums heart, the tortured screams of Sapphire dying from her many cuts and deep lacerations and Nicc the best pistol shot Vash had ever known shooting nothing but air as the phantom assailant somehow dodged all of his futile attacks. It was so painful to listen to the two of them suffer and all the while he could do nothing but listen; for now anyway. Oh yes he would have revenge and it would be brutal, this man had not know how merciless the Sabre could be.
A look of visible pain crossed the Rajja’s animal like face as they all listened for their cries for help and their screams for mercy as what sounded like some monster tore them apart. In the back ground you could hear incarnum shots being fired out of pistols and warnings for the three of them to get out of there and faint cues that some shadow was attacking them from all directions. Then as they finally died there was silence, pure silence on the other end of the comm; and then Vash knew his friends were dead.
The sudden silence was eerie like some horror hologram where the monster of the video suddenly left just one fraction of a second lusting and raving in the sweet moment of death. The screams ended and the silence began. It was at that moment the dark side of him began to surface the Sabre began to surface. A unstoppable juggernaut of berserk rage and fury that could kill a dozen knights with his bare hands. Vash could feel the Sabre take hold of him and he was a monster to be reckoned with.
Rosh began to grind his teeth with furry and rage, how did it come to this? This was supposed to be a quick easy job, he was supposed to retire after tonight and go on a permanent vacation with his family and now two of his partners were dead, Rosh had never lost a man before and he was not about to lose more, they had to retreat and scrap the mission whatever killed those two fine warriors was something to great for them to defeat, “We’re getting out of here NOW!” Rosh commanded as he rushed out of the security room rage fuming out of every hard step.
Scythe was there and Vash knew it, what he was after in this shabby museum was anyone’s guess but Vash sure as hell intended to find out. He had wished for closure for his dark past and he had finally gotten it. If he had to atone for his sins to make his life right with the gods even if he had to die he would take Scythe with him into Hades itself. It seems like Scythe had returned to his life and his past had finally caught up with him, now he just had to live long enough to outrun it. ..