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Hunted - Pt 3/3
🕑 Added 2023-06-21 07:44:32 +0000 UTC“Ain’t that just our luck Kingston?” she turned the hard light blade over in her hand, “First time we take jobs around the same place and we’re matched up.”
I tried to get my feet back under me but there wasn’t much strength left in anything.
“Com’ere-” Dvall bent over and offered a hand, “careful now. Balance can’t be good with the arm thing. Don’t worry, ain’t that hard to get used to the metal ones.”
“Dvall,”
“You sound like shit. You take a beating before this one?”
“Just-”
She turned away from me and back toward Victoria before turning the blade over in her hand again. “Sorry ‘bout the payday. I can cover the arm for ya. From what S’vennitah was sayin’ about the client I can pay ya a favour.”
I took a deep breath.
“Plus we’re finally on the same station again, gives us some time to hammer out that conversation we were in the middle of. Don’t think you should keep workin’ alone, I don-” Dvall stopped as she heard the vents on the side of the Mako open up. “Really Kingston?”
I held the gun steady toward the center of her chest, but didn’t pull the trigger as she turned back to me.
“The fuck are you doin’ man?”
“Just walk away,” I managed. “I-”
“You what?” she spat, “You’re the one tellin’ me to walk away? You know, you’d really convinced me that you were over this ‘anything for the mission’ shit you fed me last time- but here it is a-fuckin-gain.”
“No that’s no-”
“You’re gonna shoot me over the damned contract? Hell, I’m in the middle of sparing you, “you’re missing a fucking arm and-” she hissed and then looked up toward the ceiling. “Give me a minute, he’s being a jackass.”
“S’vennitah?”
“Yeah, looks like they have a thing for arms,” she half chuckled, trying to use the joke to cool down as steam vented out above us. She caught my eyes flicking over to Victoria on the floor. How much blood could sh- “You gonna put the gun down?”
“Dvall she’s just a kid.”
“Bout to be a corpse,” she answered before sighing and tapping her tail on the ground, “lighten up. Ain’t like you’ve checked the tag of every dick who pointed a gun at you.” She took half a step toward me and I matched it back. “Stop pointin’ that thing at me before I gotta make you.”
“D-”
“Don’t make it an excuse Kingston. I really tho-” it was her turn to take a deep breath and the moment felt heavy in my lungs, then again, every breath did. “I really fuckin’ thought you understood what you did wrong last time. You’d convinced me that-”
“It’s just her, I just don’t want anything to happen to-”
“You think that’s a reason,” her eyes flicked down to the barrel of the Mako again, “she’s just the exception and you ain’t gonna prioritize work over me but- It’s just gonna be somethin’ every time-”
“Aren’t you doin’ the same thing?”
“Don’t turn this on me you asshole,” she took two steps forward and into stabbing range, “if I was doin’ my job right now you’d be fuckin’ dead.”
Her eyes locked on mine, the vertical slits running back and forth trying to see if I was going to waver.
“I can’t just let you kill her.”
“Yeah you can Kingston. It’d be smarter. It’d be safer, and I’ll try to forgive you for this shit too.”
“Dvall, I’m sorry about the Moonside, I was dumb back then and-”
“You ain’t fuckin’ changed, have you?”
“I think I have and that’s the problem,” I pushed the gun a touch closer to her, to the point where the barrel sparked against her shield. “I can’t let you do this.”
“Yeah you can.”
“Then I won’t.”
Everything should have exploded. In any situation like this, agreeing on the impasse should have resulted in pulled triggers and hard light cutting through shields, but there was a moment there, a breath where both of us waited for the other one to take the first shot. Anything to make it feel better. Justified.
“Don’t make me choose.”
“Bit late,” she answered as her free hand pressed the barrel of the gun toward the floor. I didn’t fight it. My gaze followed it and found Victoria’s hand halfway down.
I pulled the trigger.
Shots hit the floor.
Dvall leapt backward.
The floor didn’t buckle or break, there was no tumble as I grabbed Victoria leading to a harrowing escape. There was only a brief flash of muted pharmaceutical pain as a shot through my shield and into my shoulder, sending me spinning toward the floor.
No, not the shoulder. Too close to the middle for that.
“Shit,” Dvall swore before I’d even hit the burning floor. I felt the blood almost like it was welling up in my throat. “S’vennitah, what the hell? I had it-”
I missed the last part of what she said as my ear rang against the metal and my vision stuttered for a moment. It only came back into focus as a knee landed in front of my face from Dvall dropping down.
“Shit. Shit. Shit. What the fuck was that we were just talkin’ it out!”
“Objectively incorrect, Dvall. He was in the way of the mission directive. Now we can-”
“Kingston. You can hear me right? Just keep listenin’. Don’t think it’s as bad as it looks.”
“It’s a lung.”
“Humans need both of theirs to-”
“Good. The Meritocracy placed a bounty on his head as well as hers.”
“You knew?”
“Nothing confirmed but it was the logical conclusion that he was working a job for-”
“And you didn’t think to tell me?”
“It wasn’t imperative to-”
“What is up with everyone I partner with being a-”
I missed some again. It was hard to focus on more than one thing at a time and breathing was starting to need attention.
"I ain't collecting the bounty on his head."
"Then I will and you can pretend that it doesn't affect our overall-"
"Fuck you.."
I coughed and could taste iron in my mouth, but all it interrupted was a pause.
"I'll finish them both so we can leave and talk about this back at the-"
"Like hell you are."
"Did you just go over this with King-"
"Fuck both of-" the third voice was cut off by a brilliant blue flash as a Nurse shot erupted across half my vision.
I don't know how I shot up, but I did.
Victoria was up on one knee with the Nurse half supported by the door frame, he silver hair was matted with black blood.
"S'vennitah?!"
"Vic don't-" I choked out before using something I didn't know I had to get between Dvall and her-
And it was everything, because the next thing I did was choke on blood, and then the medicine put me to sleep.
Comments
Cosmic Bananas
Is this story still getting continued?
