The door creaked open and Delamain pulled up, echoing over the loudspeaker, “It is advisable to get into the vehicle as soon as possible,” as we launched ourselves out and ran like the wind. I viciously struck one poor bastard on my way to the car, taking another round that grazed my shoulder before I climbed into the open door that automatically shut behind me. Jackie sprinted around the other side, peppered with multiple smart SMG rounds to the back as he threw himself in the car, his head landing squarely on my lap as the door closed. “Welcome to the Delamain Service, where you leave your problems at the d–”
“SHUT UP AND DRIVE, YOU FUCK!” I screamed at Delamain as bullets raked the car’s shatterproof windows.
“Acknowledged,” the car complied, immediately going full-throttle and speeding out of the parking garage– wait. Wait, no… Adam Smasher?!
Of all the people to be blocking our exit, of course it’s him… “GET US THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!”
“Combat mode activated. Please remain calm.”
“CALM?!”
“Roadblock ahead.”
“Oh you don’t say!!”
Delamain turned around at once and headed the other way around to the main gate, just barely beating Adam Smasher as we sped towards an actual roadblock.
“HOOOLY SHIIIIT!” Jackie and I both shouted at the same time as Delamain punched clean through and sped off into the night, its clients safely on-board… Fuck… I gotta leave this thing a good review…
"Nice work there… Del…” Jackie clutched at his stomach, now gushing blood… Fuck… I have to stem the bleeding… Right, what do we have on-hand… Airhypos, no…
“Jackie, you look pale as a corpse!” I shouted at him, “C’mon, help me out here!”
“Heh… Always gotta help you… Fine…” he muttered, his voice raspy and tinged with gurgling. He wasn’t gonna make it without something… “See…? Told you… we’d make it…”
“Jack, come on! You… got this… see? You got your… your own war story after all…” I shook my head to keep myself alert enough to attend to him, my scalded arms shuffling through anything I could find. “Delamain, hurry!”
“My medical diagnostics indicate that Mr. Welles’ condition is critical.”
“NO SHIT, HUH!” I shouted at the infernal machine, “Come… on… Jackie! Take us to… a ripperdoc… right now!”
“Apologies, but that won’t be possible,” the thing replied, “Our itinerary has been paid for in advance, I am not at liberty to change it.”
“FUCK THAT, I WILL PAY… WHATEVER… IT TAKES…!”
“It’s okay… Cappy… I’ll hold out…” Jackie looked at me while I had tears streaming down my face. I shook my head at him and helped press his hand on the wound – his arm had so little strength left. He had maybe 10 or 15 minutes… FUCK!! No no no no!
“It’ll be okay, Jackie! You’ll… You’ll see Misty… And we can visit our mom… real soon… okay?”
“Heh… you got a… little som’n… on your face…” he chuckled.
“C’mon, stay with me, Jack! Please!!”
“Misty… knew… she always… knew…” he smiled, “Read… my cards…”
“Jackie!!”
“Come… here…” he whispered. I leaned over, still putting pressure on his wound. “The biochip…”
“What?!”
“The… biochip… Take care… of it… for me…” he muttered as he took out the Relic from his skull.
“Jackie?! Jackie, stop!!”
“Cap… it’s okay… Promise me you’ll… take care of it…” He clutched onto the sword I stole, “And I’ll… take care of this…”
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“I promise…” I sighed, and he placed it in my head, gently brushing my hair as his hand fell at his side. “Jackie?!” Fuck, he’s unconscious!!
“We have arrived at our destination,” Delamain interrupted, “I suggest you find medical supplies inside. It may be dangerous to move him.”
“Keep him safe!” I launched out of the car, leaving Jackie with Saburo’s katana as I rushed inside the No-Tell Motel – or, well, limped, as it were. Airhypos… don’t last particularly long… Fuck… my face… feels like it’s burning… from the inside-out. I could barely feel anything… anything but pain. Everything around me, my whole world… is agony…
I hobbled past the clerk and up the stairs, dragging a nearly-dead leg and arm as I slowly made my way to the room, going as fast as my muscles would allow… I had to make it… I had to… Jackie needed help, and fast… Faster than I was capable of… maybe… But I had to try… Fuck me, why did Dex have to go with the second floor… And all the way in the back, too? It wouldn’t… have killed him… to just wait outside for the fucking car?!
I knocked on the door incessantly until someone opened up– Oleg? The driver? Right… Bodyguard… He looked behind me and ushered me inside.
“Thank God… Dex…” I heaved, practically collapsing under my own weight, “Jackie…”
“That you on the news?” Dex interrupted, “N54, DMS, Hell – even the pirate stations, it’s all over the place! What the fuck happened to you?! The job?! And where the Hell is Jackie, that huge bastard!”
“He’s… in the car… he needs… help…” I swallowed my pride to plead with the massive man, “He can… die… at any moment…”
“Hmph,” Dex grunted, “Fine. Oleg, go see to V’s friend. I got her. We got some big-boy words to say to each other.” With that, Oleg casually walked out of the room – what the fuck?! I could’ve asked the fucking clerk to help faster! “Now, the Relic?”
“Didn’t make it…” I’m not giving him a single. Fucking. Enny. As far as I’m concerned, it’s all going to Jackie now. All of it.
“Hmph, that’s one piece o’ good news.” He took an arrogant puff of his cigar. I fucking hate smokers…
“Good news?!” I said through my broken, bloodied gums, “We bled for that thing. T-Bug died for it, and that’s it?!” Dex paced around the room, putting all the pieces together for himself.
“Saburo Arasaka… dead… Got any notion of the shit you pulled me into?! You offed the FUCKIN’ EMPEROR! His MAJESTY! So much for your FUCKIN’ samurai code of honor, huh!” He threw the cigar on the ground, “Anyone wit’ so much as a PINKY in this mess is as good as dead!”
“I know. And that’s why we need to leave. Right now!”
“We?” He paced over and picked up his still-burning cigar from beside the bed.
“You’re the fucking fixer! You have a contingency plan, so fuck it, let’s get the Hell out of here!”
“A’ight, settle down, gotta be tactical about this…”
“Tactical? Tactical?! Are you fucking kidding me?! We don’t have time for this shit! Jackie’s gonna bleed out any second now!”
“Agreed, tha’ss why I’m gettin’ Oleg to go get ‘im… Go getchourself cleaned up. Your face, got blood all over it.” He pointed behind me, “Bathroom’s over there. If you can make it that far.”
“I… I can’t…” I collapsed on the floor, “What is there to be tactical about?!”
“Gotta figure a way outta here that benefits all parties, tha’ss all. Now go crawl your ass in the bathroom, Miss V.”
“The blood… is mine… it won’t wash off… that easily,” I grunted, looking up at him, “Now… tell me what the plan–”
…I collapsed to my knees, not believing what I’d just heard… A shot. A single, distant gunshot… I’d never heard anything louder in my life. Its barely-audible echo rang out from two stories and one building down, yet I already knew exactly what it meant… Oleg went to the car… and…
Jackie…
It… It felt like time stopped… This isn’t real… This can’t be real…
I screamed.
I screamed like I never had before. Like I never will again. Screamed so loudly that the gods themselves might hear…
“JACKIE…!!!”
All I’ve ever wanted to be was a dancer… All he ever wanted to be was a good husband… Why… Why wasn’t I there for him?! Why wasn’t I strong enough…
I… I couldn’t do it… I failed him… I wasn’t strong enough… He deserved better…
I didn’t even have to look… But I felt it in my bones… He… He’s gone… My brother… Jackie… is dead… My heart… my whole chest feels like it’s collapsing in on itself. I can’t… can’t breathe… It feels like someone just grabbed my soul and slowly ripped it in half… I just… couldn’t stop screaming… “I will… fucking… KILL YOU…!!”
“Heh, I’d like to see you try,” Dex mocked me…
–
“Sorry ‘bout this, Miss V,” Dex continued as Oleg walked back in the room, kicking V down to the ground. “Gotta look out for numero uno, tha’ss all. Nothin’ personal.”
“It’s done,” Oleg muttered to Dex, looking over to see the sad waste of a human being having a heart attack on Dex’s floor. She didn’t put up a single fight, nor even utter one word. Just stared at him with the cold, dead glare of a broken woman, her body fuelled purely by sheer, undiluted rage and suffering.
“It’s the quiet life for me. Not makin’ the mistake you did when you two went down in a blaze o’ glory,” Dex muttered to the dying samurai. Oleg handed Dex his pistol, stepping back as Dex leveled it with V’s head.
I didn’t… I didn’t even tell him my real name… was the last coherent thought V’s mind produced.
“Sayonara.”
She instinctively looked away just as Dex’s gun discharged, striking her dead in her left orbital socket. Her body seized before falling limp in a puddle of blood and splintered bone. Her face, badly burned on both sides, was barely recognizable as human, much less an individual. Her arm loosely twitched as what was left of her brain continued sending out electrical impulses. She reached for a sword that wasn’t there before finally falling still, her eyes glazing over and blood pooling out of her skull.
–
“Scream…”
I can’t…
“Repeat after me. ‘I will scream until I am heard.’ Say it.”
“I will… Jackie…”
“Say it.”
I failed you… I’m sorry… I… I wasn’t good enough… I couldn’t scream loud enough…
“You will learn.”
Mom…? Dad…? Jackie?
Jackie… Please… I can’t… I can’t do this alone…
Everything faded… I can’t see… I can’t hear anything… I’m so cold…
Jackie… I’m sorry…
Wait… Wait for me… Jackie… don’t leave me…
I can feel it… The fire…
Why didn’t I tell you my name, Jackie…
I’m scared… Jackie… Please… Where are you… I’m so scared…
