Raven Wolf - 05 - The Abandoned - Chapter 19 by Kurapika < Submission

Keywords male 1177618, female 1068197, fox 245231, wolf 191060, skunk 33864, fantasy 26472, shark 18016, story 13716, coyote 11928, jackal 11728, adventure 5736, sci-fi 4668, drama 4553, action 4284, mink 3042, falcon 1612, wolverine 1592, novel 1242, fiction 886, raven wolf 329

Chapter Nineteen

A horrified look fills Ember’s face, she raises her voice at her father as she questions what he has just told him. “Lockdown!? What do you mean lockdown!? Why would they do that!?”

Ember’s father is now in the middle of putting everything in his shop away, though he has been up all night preparing for a rather large job that he and his daughter were supposed to do, that work is no longer available to them with the lockdown in place. “There’s nothing we can do about it.”

Ember starts taking the things her father had just put away off of the shelves, she had told Adrian that she would be able to pay him for his help in getting the Super Solider out, he would threaten to expose her and her connection to the resistance to military if she does not pay him for his efforts soon. “No, no, no, you don’t understand! I need this job! I need the money!”

Her father doesn’t look amused by her actions. “Ember, the job will have to wait until the lockdown is over, the employer that hired us isn’t bringing the wilds that need their collars worked on over.”

“Can’t we go over there then?”

He father shakes his head no. “The work areas have already been locked down. There’s nothing that we can do about it.”

Ember watches her father as he puts the last of his equipment away. “What am I supposed to do then…? I’m dead…”

Ember’s father lets out a sigh as he walks toward the entrance of his shop to lock it up. “You’re not going to die waiting to afford whatever it may be you have your eyes on this time.”

“You don’t understand the situation!”

Ember storms past her father out of the shop, her father calls out to her. “Go straight home. The last thing I need is you arrested for not obeying lockdown protocol, you already do enough to make life for this family difficult.”

Ember comes to a stop outside of the shop, crossing her arms and tapping her foot against the ground. She has to come up with something, there is no way that stingy little brat is going to let her use the lockdown as an excuse for not paying him.

“Hey Ember, is something wrong?”

Ember looks over to a group of soldiers that are currently helping people evacuate their homes and make their way to the shelters and spot Fenrir amongst them. Ember looks surprised to see him there. “Oh hey Fen, I didn’t know they let you out of the hospital.”

Fenrir nods his head as he makes his way away from the other soldiers. “I was cleared sometime last night, though I’ve been healthy enough to go pretty much since being admitted. There were just a lot of unforeseen tests and paperwork that needed to be done.” He scratches the back of his head. “Remind me not to get shot again alright.”

“Gonna be hard in your line of work, especially if we’re kind of being called to war.”

Fenrir tries to clear things up. “This isn’t war, this is just precaution. Dad thinks that Teddy and Zack are really dangerous.” He looks to the side. “I didn’t really get that feeling from them when I was their guard, Teddy was always so docile and quiet… except for that time he went a little bit out of control when the source was first introduced to him.”

Ember seems a little confused. “This lock down and call to arms is because of those two!?”

Fenrir grins at her nervously. “Oh… right. That information isn’t public knowledge, of course you don’t know.” He lets out a weak laugh. “I’m just so used to you having more information on those two than me, so I guess I assumed that you already knew all that. My dad would kill me if he found out how casually I just blurted that information out.”

Ember crosses her arms. “You should be telling me this information anyways! You’re my informant!”

Fenrir looks annoyed to hear her say that. “Not so loud alright! Do you want to get me arrested!?” He glances around him to make sure no one had overheard the conversation, he turns his attention back to Ember when he is done. “So do you and your dad need any help getting to the shelters?”

Ember places her hands on her hips, annoyed to be offered the help. “We’re both fine and don’t need your help.”

Fenrir looks nervous over the response that he has gotten, Ember is clearly in a bad mood about something. “Sorry for asking.” He looks back to the soldiers that he has been with. “Well if you need anything don’t hesitate to ask.”

Ember watches as Fenrir returns with the others, she crosses her arms as she looks around her, there has to be a place somewhere she can hide out to avoid being corralled into one of the shelters. “There’s no way I’m getting locked up when things are just starting to get interesting!”

*******

Adrian holds his arms behind his head comfortably as he leans back in his chair, staring up at the two soldiers that have come to request he goes with them to the military base instead of going with the rest of his housemates to the shelters, Adrian is a little confused by the request. “I guess I could come with you to base… though I’m pretty surprised that the Commander General would want me outside of the shelter in a situation like this.” He looks over to the cat like android that is currently sitting on his desk. “I mean what does he expect me to do about this situation? It’s not like there’s a lot of job openings for hackers in a search and capture mission, that’s more physical leg work stuff than sit at the computer and type stuff, and I don’t do that unless I absolutely have to.”

One of the soldier’s begins to explain. “You’re expertise may come in handy during the search, he wants you on hand and ready should the situation arise.”

Adrian sighs to himself. “He’s got plenty of hackers and experts working for him, I doubt he’ll run into the level of complexity my aid would require in a situation like this.”

“It’s more of a precaution, after all, protocol for un-barricading and breaking the seals off the shelters to remove someone from them is both complicated, time consuming and often frightening and confusing to the general public.”

Adrian shrugs his shoulders once more before getting out of his chair. “Alright then.” He looks over to the small catlike robot. “Come on dad, let’s go. Even though I would much rather be in the shelters right now we get to go to the military facility to wait around doing nothing just in case Zephy finds something he needs me to do for him.”

The robotic cat jumps down from the desk it had been seated on, trotting up to Adrian’s legs and walking next to him as he and the soldiers make their way out of the small room that the boy was housed in.

Adrian looks up to the soldiers as he begins to question them. “Before we go to the base I would like to go check on my mom. Something like this is probably freaking her out, I should be there to make sure she cooperates and makes it to the shelters safely.”

The soldier doesn’t look down to him as he responds. “You’re mother has already been moved to the shelters without any trouble. She’s just fine.”

Adrian is very surprised to hear this. “Really? She’s usually really difficult when it comes to making her do things she doesn’t want to do or if she gets scared. They didn’t use any drugs on her did they? I specifically instructed them not to use anything on her before contacting me.”

The soldiers lead Adrian outside of the building. “I’m sure that if you bring the issue up with the Commander General he will be able to find out that information for you.”

The small catlike robot that walks alongside Adrian speaks up to get his attention. “-Perhaps you should return to your room Adrian-”

The boy looks confused by the suggestion. “Why Dad? What’s wrong?”

The robot begins to scan the men they are with. “-There are no orders it the militaries system depicting any kind of order for you to be brought in. Also, according to my scans there are no record of these two ever working for the True Blood military-”

Adrian comes to an abrupt stop. “What is the meaning of this?”

One of the men tries to calm Adrian down. “Your Parental Droid must be mistaken.”

“-I am not mistaken!-”

Adrian takes a step back from them, the man looks to the other and quickly gives him orders. “Grab him! Don’t let him escape!”

The man grabs onto the boy before he is able to turn around and run, lifting him up into the air and covering his mouth to keep him from screaming. Adrian struggles to pull free while the other snatches and picks up the robot before it can run away. “Don’t worry you won’t be hurt. You are a key figure in obtaining a free and open world.”

*******

Vaan is working at the laptop that has been provided to him by the military, a frown fills his face when something catches his attention, he opens a recent report that has been put into the system. He looks over to Mort who has dozed off while sitting in a chair in that room, Vaan speaks up to get his attention. “Captain Mort.”

Mort wakes after hearing his name, he looks sleepily over towards Vaan. “What is it?”

Vaan looks back to the report as he begins to explain. “I think I may have found Quincy.”

Mort is of course interested in this information, Vaan summarizes the report that he is reading. “A figure that fits his description is right now being pursued by several soldiers in one of the northeast blocks of the city, apparently the person in question is attacking people in a violent, practically primitive manner.”

Mort’s eyes widen at the information, a worried and horrified look is on his face. “He lost control again!?”

Vaan looks a little confused. “Lost control? What do you mean?”

Mort quickly makes his way out of the room, Vaan yells after him before he’s gone. “You better hurry up if you want to get to him, the soldiers in pursuit are very likely at this point to put him down once they corner him.”

*******

Dmitri grins as he takes a deep breath of air, he stands upon a rooftop that is currently filled with soldiers from all three of the domestic militaries currently occupying the city. “The scent of crisp early morning air.” He looks back to Aither who he will be leading across the rooftop to be transported to the avian fleet. “You’re going to miss it were you’re headed I’m sure.”

Aither smirks at the comment. “The only thing I’ll be missing is the companionship of my dear beloved.” He looks over to Jovina who is at his other side. “And that of course is only if you’re able to get me into a cell without me killing you like the rest of your family and escaping.”

General Bourne shoves Aither forward, the force almost knocks him to the ground. “Enough.” He looks back to Jovina. “He’s bluffing, there is nothing that he can do to escape. We have him.”

Dmitri crosses his arms as he watches the three of them along with several soldiers walk past him. “You are not as powerful as you believe yourself to be. The world is changing teacher, the Sources are no longer the gods we used to be. We are but men, doomed to live and die in the same pitiful manner as any other creature on this planet.”

“We were never gods Ebon. We are spirits just as everything else, only with more power.” He looks ahead to Jovina who walks in front of him. “Do you have anyone you love Avari? Or even anyone that might love you?”

A frown fills Jovina’s face. “You will address me only as General Jovina.”

“You’re avoiding my question.”

“I am under no obligation to answer it.”

Aither looks back to General Bourne. “How about you?”

Bourne grins as me amuses his captor by answering. “I just finished up papers from my second divorce not too long ago.”

“I see, I hear that not being able to hold onto a long term relationship is common in the military.”

Jovina looks back to Bourne. “Don’t indulge him with a response.”

Aither laughs as he turns his attention back to Jovina. “If you have your way we’re going to be spending a long time together, so it makes sense for the two of us to get to know one another.”

“I thought you said you were going to kill me.”

Aither nods his head. “I don’t mind getting to know my targets before I kill them.” His expression changes as he comes to an abrupt stop, he turns away and looks off in the distance focusing on something.

Bourne lets out a threatening growl as he shoves Aither forward. “Keep moving.”

Aither stays in spot as he yells out to Dmitri. “Ebon. You owe me.”

Dmitri is confused by the comment. “Owe you for what?” He lets out a gasp when something cuts into his ear, Dmitri holds his hand over it as blood starts running down his face. “What did you do!?” A sudden surge of pain fills his body, Dmitri clutches onto his chest, there is no reason for him to be in this kind of pain, tears start to run down his face. “What is this?”

General Bourne lets out a painful scream as he holds onto his arm, a deep gash runs through it. “What happened!?” He looks ahead to see Jovina hit the ground. “General Jovina!” He rushes past Aither running next to her and looks her over, a pool of blood starts to form beneath her. “Get a doctor here now!”

A sudden gust of wind almost throws several soldiers back, Bourne looks back to Aither while barking orders to his soldiers. “Contain him and stop his attack-” He falls silent upon seeing Aither, blood fills his clothes as a bullet wound runs through his chest.

The violent gusts of wind continue, Bourne turns his attention from Aither to the airships that they have been making their way to, they lose their altitude and start to fall to the ground, the violent winds come from the ships and not Aither.

Aither weakly grins, blood runs from his mouth and down his neck. His finger pointed forward to where Jovina had been standing. “Someone is trying to kill you Ebon… though I guess that no one here would be surprised by this… not even you…”

Dmitri stares at Aither. “What do you mean?”

“The bullet was coming for you.”

General Bourne quickly realizes what is going on. “A sniper! Everyone get down behind cover!” He gets on the radio giving more orders to the Soldiers outside of this procedure. “Find the buildings that would serve as a vantage point for this one and send me to search them! Now! The rest of you evacuate any and all civilians in this city before the airships hit the ground!”

“Louis…”

Bourne looks down to Jovina after hearing her speak up. “Save your strength!”

Dmitri lifts his hand from his ear staring down at the blood on it, Aither has used the wind to abruptly change the route of the bullet that had been about to hit him in the head and instead directed it towards Jovina, the bullet had gone through both Bourne’s arm and his body before hitting its new target.

*******

Levi lets out a sigh he no longer has a clear view of his target. “Well that didn’t go as expected.”

He begins packing up his equipment while opening up communications with Professor Genesis. “I’ve run into somewhat of a problem.”

A shaky voice replies to the com. “Yes… I think I have to…”

Levi is a little surprised by the tone of voice that Genesis has replied in. “What happened? You sound like you’re about to go run and hide in a closet.”

“1286-02 attacked me… he managed to get the electrical collar off and attacked me, all three of the captives escaped during the ordeal.”

Levi frowns at the information. “Escaped? How could he have done something like that?”

“The collar was damaged so not all of the data is present, but from what I’m able to gather so far is that something triggered a very high adrenaline spike, he lost control of his actions and started attacking everything he could see.”

“How are you so sure he lost control?”

The Professor explains. “I used cloaking and as soon as I was out of his sight he lost interest in me and started attacking targets that he could see. A soldier who was in their right mind would not have left me to be ignored, as a target that can’t be seen is a larger threat than one that can be seen, especially if the other threat is only a child.”

Levi is a little worried by this information. “He didn’t kill the Earth Source’s son did he?”

“No, 1217-19 interfered and stopped him from attacking the boy, but all three of them are now gone. We have nothing.”

Levi tries to ease the Professor’s mind. “It’s not as bad as you think, I’ll bring them back in. If I can catch them once I can do it again. If the world doesn’t end of course.” He finishes packing up his things as he begins heading out of the building.

Genesis questions him on the comment. “What do you mean?”

“I think I’ve killed the wrong Source, unless he has a descendent capable of hosting the source after its current host dies I’m afraid that the Source will die with him, and as many speculate, the plant soon after.”

“You idiot! How could you have messed up so badly!? And how can you sound so calm about this!?”

“It was the Wind Source, in the tales that source was one of the lovers. He has to have at least one descendent somewhere. Probably two or three litters of them at the least.”

“Domestics and Wilds don’t breed litters! If they did the females would have more than two-”

“Don’t lecture me on the science of animal biology, I really don’t want to hear it.”

The building gives a violent jolt when the front of one of the falling ships hits it, Levi closes his communications, he clearly needs to focus on this situation more than anything else right now. “I need to get out of this building before it collapses on me.”

*******

Teddy lets out a painful scream as he doubles over clutching onto his chest, Zack quickly turns back to him. “What are you doing!? Are you trying to get us found!?”

Teddy bares his teeth as he clutches so tightly onto his chest his claws start to dig into his skin. “The pain!”

“Were you shot or something!?” Zack makes his way over to him as he begins to look him over. “What are you talking about you’re perfectly fine.”

“No!”

Zack frowns. “Even if you insist otherwise there’s still nothing wrong!” He grabs onto Teddy’s hand forcing it off of his chest looking at both his hand and the area he had been grabbing. “Really, there doesn’t look to be anything wrong with you. Just what kind of pain are you experiencing-” He stops talking when he sees tears running down Teddy’s face. “Does it really hurt that bad?”

Teddy slowly shakes his head. “No…”

“Then why are you crying?”

“I don’t know why…”

*******

“Shiya! Shiya are you alright! What happened!” Shiya is on his knees holding onto his chest as an unbelievable pain runs through his body. Dolly is at his side as she tries to figure out what is going on. “Shiya!”

Lumia looks back to the two of them, Shiya had surprised them by letting out such a loud and painful scream. “Is he hurt?”

Eighteen gets to his feet and into a defensive stance as several soldiers surround their position. “He gave away our position.”

Shiya tries to look over to the others, it's hard for him to see because of the tears in his eyes. “This sadness… I’ve never felt such a painful sorrow before…”

Dolly seems confused not sure as to why Shiya would have so suddenly felt that way. “What’s wrong? Did you remember something terrible?”

Eighteen moves quickly attacking the soldiers that have approached them and taking them out, the visions that had been plaguing him have stopped some time ago, it's no longer an issue that is holding him back.

He looks back to Dolly and Shiya once the soldiers are taken care of. “We have to move before more soldiers get here.”

Dolly nods her head as she tries to pull Shiya to his feet. “We have to get going.”

Shiya doesn’t move from his spot. “Aither…”

Dolly seems a little confused. “Aither? What about Aither…?” She gasps the sound of crashing and bending metal fills the air. She looking up to see one of the Avian military airships hit one of the buildings in the city on its decent to the ground.

Tears continue to run down his face. “He’s dead…”

*******

The sounds of terrified screams fill the air, the soldiers of the city try to bring some organization to the chaos that the falling airships are causing, leading people away from potential crash sites as they evacuate everyone from the city.

Mort quickly approaches one of the military personal to question them. “Quincy, do you know where he is?”

The soldier looks a bit confused, Mort tries to explain things to clear things up. “A soldier that works under me, there’s a group of soldiers that should be chasing him down right now.”

“I was ordered here to help with the evacuation, I don’t know anything about any of that.”

Another soldier calls out to Mort. “Are you talking about the soldier with the number in his ear? The one that went completely nuts and is attacking everyone that gets near him?”

Mort looks back to him with a nod of his head. “That’s him, where is he?”

“My group cornered him a few blocks in, we were about to contain him but then the ships started falling from the sky, we didn’t have the time to get him under control in this mess so our directive was changed to help with the city evacuation. He should still be trapped where we left him.”

“Why change directives and leave a job half finished? Especially if it’s going to compromise your original objective’s life?”

The soldier explains, it is not as cold hearted as it sounded. “The guy had a pretty bad stab wound he’s not going to be recovering from anytime soon. We couldn’t get close enough to him to get him under control let alone give him any treatments. He’ll bleed to death if he hasn’t done so already by now, so compared to everything else that’s happening right now he’s a very low priority.”

This information does not sound right to Mort, he is aware of the healing capabilities that Super Soldiers have. “He can’t bleed to death, it should be impossible.”

“I’m not sure what makes you think that Sir, but fact of the matter is he was losing blood and growing weaker as we fought him. He’s probably gone by now.”

Mort thinks this over, that scenario does not sound right, perhaps this is the wrong person. Then again the description of his actions and the mention of the tattoo in his ear makes it very hard to believe it was anyone else but Alistair. He turns back to the soldier. “Where did you leave him?”

The soldier points to a nearby building, Mort leaves his side and makes his way over towards it.

There are more loud crashing sounds as pieces of a building hit the ground near them, the soldier he was  conversing with quickly return to help everyone get out of the area while Mort continues forward, working his way against the flow of people that are now trying desperately to get out of the area.

He walks up to the barricaded entrance of the building that had been pointed out to him, Mort forcefully moves the obstacles out of the way and opens the door to get inside, calling out as he searches the dark room. “Quincy!”

A low growl is the only response that Mort gets, the jackal makes his way towards it as he speaks. “You need to get a hold of yourself, do you understand? General Dmitri’s tolerance of you is already exceptionally low, if you keep this he’ll have an undeniable and reasonable excuse to have you terminated.”

He comes to a stop when he find’s who he is looking for, the coyote on the ground in a pool of his own blood, he is breathing heavy as he holds onto his open wound while staring up at Mort with a threatening gaze.

Mort holds his hands out to him as if he were trying to calm down an upset animal. “Just what happened to you?” Alistair pushes himself back from Mort. “Alistair it’s me. There’s no reason for you to be afraid of me.” He takes a step towards him, Alistair’s snarls become more threatening as he bares his teeth at him, Mort continues to try and talk to him. “You can trust me remember? You said so yourself, that I’m one of the few people you can trust.”

The building shakes violently when it is hit by one of the falling airships, the cement and stone lose its hold and fall inward as the wings of one of the ships digs through the left side of the building, Mort shields himself from the debris while Alistair backs further into his corner.

Mort looks around him, the building’s structure begins to shake and creak threateningly, it is no longer stable nor safe to be inside. He looks back to Alistair. “Quincy. We need to get out of here.”

Alistair doesn’t seem any more willing to move from the spot he has placed himself in, Mort once again tries to approach him. “You’re hurt, you’re angry and you’re frightened, but you need to get a hold of yourself.”

The coyote let out a vicious snarl as he leaps forward to attack, Mort moves to defend himself lifts his arms to block the attack, Alistair tears through his sleeves and claws through his fur and flesh, his second attack is stopped when Mort grabs onto his right arm and holds him tightly in place when he swings at him again, this action though also creates an opening in Mort’s defences that Alistair can get through, Alistair swings with his right arm that now holds a shard of debris from the building, cutting deeply into his chest, Mort lets out a painful cry as he grabs onto Alistair’s other wrist, letting go of his right hand to pry the weapon from him and take it from him, Alistair lunges forward as he uses his now free hand to grab onto Mort’s neck.

Mort quickly takes his handgun from his jacket, he presses the barrel of the gun against Alistair’s forehead as he yells out loudly. “Don’t make me do this!”

Alistair’s heavy breathing continues as he stares at Mort, his grip around his neck is not enough to choke him, the gun pointed at his head keeping him from doing so.

Mort tries to ignore the sounds of the building crumbling around them, knowing that if attention is taken from Alistair for only a moment that the Super Soldier would take the opportunity to kill him. “You don’t want to kill me, if you did you would have done it long ago.”

Alistair growls at him, and Mort continues to talk to him. “You’ve lost control Quincy, you need to get that back before you do something that you will regret for the rest of your life. Do you think that you honestly need more regrets then you already have?”

Alistair lets out a whimper as he lets go of Mort’s neck and holds onto his head, tightly shutting his eyes as he lets out a scream.

“Quincy!”

Zero shakes his head. “No Two listen, when we wake up once more we’ll be in a place where we can’t feel pain, where we don’t have to fight or be hurt anymore. No more training, no more experiments, where nothing bad will ever happen. Best of all, we’ll all be there, we’ll be together evermore, and there will be nothing that can separate us.”

He holds his hand out for Two to take. “So there’s no reason to cry, and no reason to be afraid.”

“You lied to me Zero…”

Mort stares at Alistair knowing full well that the Super Soldiers would refer to each other by numbers before being taken in by the military and given names. “I am not Zero, and you are not a number anymore, you haven’t been for a long time. You’re thinking too far back, you need to think closer to this point, you need to remember me!”

Alistair lets out another scream as he shakes his head, his strength is progressively becoming weaker as he struggles, Mort continues to speak. “Listen to me. If you do not gain control of yourself you will die from your wounds, and if you try to kill me, I’ll kill you before you’re able to, if you take too long to figure this out this building will collapse on the both of us and we’ll both be dead. That is your current situation understood?”

Alistair stumbles back as he falls to his knees, barely having the energy to stand as he grows weaker with every moment, the Captain continues to try and talk to him. “I am Louis Mort. You are Alistair Quincy. I gave you that name remember? Ten years ago when I was first appointed to the Super Soldier project, when you first met me.”

“It’s dangerous to be here, I could kill you if I wanted to you know.”

Alistair is still a young child, he standing within a small room in a military building that he had recently been placed inside, Mort is now in his mid twenties standing on the other side of the room of him, a folder in his hand and stern look on his face.

Mort nods his head as he keeps his eye on the boy. “I have already been informed.”

Alistair frowns as he begins to approach him. “Oh really? So I suppose you didn’t wander into this room by accident then.”

Mort shakes his head no. “It would be impossible to. Currently you are being locked behind countless security measures and soldiers. I had to go through all of that to reach you.”

“And even when going through all that you didn’t decide to just turn back and not come here?” He motions towards the file that Mort is holding. “That’s my file isn’t it? If you bothered to read it you would know that I killed the last visitor you Domestics sent me, and the two before that, what makes you think I won’t do the same to you?”

Mort holds the file up. “I read the file thoroughly before coming here, several times in fact as the details within it were very hard to believe at first.” He stares down at the child. “You’re a Super Soldier, and not the first one that the Domestic Military has managed to get its hands on, though certainly the most violent and difficult to control. It took several teams of men to catch and bring you in. In the end they had to bring another Super Soldier who managed to subdue you.”

Alistair thinks back to his capture, the one they had sent was a very large tiger. “Not without me breaking his arm first.”

“His arm did not look broken.”

Alistair grins at the comment. “We heal pretty fast and don’t stay broken for long.” He comes to a stop in front of Mort. “So before I tear you limb from limb like the last person they sent in here, why don’t you tell me what you guys intend to do with me anyways. Experiment on me? Cut me up into a million little pieces for study?”Alistair shrugs his shoulders. “Or is the military just offering me up sacrifices now in hopes to appease my anger? I’m a Super Soldier not a deity.”

Mort stares down at him. “They intend to have you trained, educated and added to their force. What they’re looking for is someone that you will listen to, someone to help keep you under control.”

Alistair stares at him almost insulted by the information. “And they think that I’ll listen to you?”

“I suppose.”

“You think I would trust any of you people!? You disgusting Domestics who think you are superior because you populate this planet like an infestation of insects?”

Mort stares down at him. “Is that not what you are?”

“A Domestic? No, I am an experiment created in a laboratory, a weapon with no race nor lineage to call my own. The only family I had were weapons that were the same model as me, and they’re all dead because we were defective weapons.”

Mort shakes his head no. “You’re not a weapon, you are a Soldier.”

Alistair crosses his arms as he stares up to him. “A Soldier?”

Mort nods his head yes. “You said so yourself didn’t you? You called yourself a Super Soldier”

Alistair nods his head yes. “I suppose I did, though I do not see the difference between Soldiers and weapons.”

Mort begins to explain there are large differences between the two. “Weapons and Soldiers are both used in battle, and though weapons may be tools that kill the enemy the Soldiers are the ones that pull the trigger, they control the weapons, they fight the battles and go through trials and hardships that most people will go through their entire lives, be they Domestics, Wilds or True Bloods. And they remember all of it, the people they killed, the comrades they fought with, the allies they lost. You speak of the people you have killed, and you speak of the family you lost when your batch was terminated. Weapons would not have those memories, only someone who has fought and survived would, a Soldier.”

Alistair thinks this over, he is indeed different from the others that have been sent to him. “The way you speak is very different from the others. Not once have you called me a child, in fact not once have to referred to my age. You talk to me as if I were just the same age as you, and give me the title of a soldier despite me explaining otherwise.”

Mort looks down towards Alistair. “There’s no denying that you are young, but age is not the deciding factor of maturity. For you to be a Soldier who can so easily kill people without a second thought, your childhood, if you ever did have one, has already been taken from you.”

Alistair stares up at him in silence coming to realize something, it is a moment before he speaks up again. “It’s the same for you isn’t it? This assumption is not easily reached by those who have not been through a similar ordeal.”

“My past is no business of yours.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” He grins at him. “A child soldier, I didn’t know those existed in the Domestic militaries of developed countries like this one.”

“Your assumption is not entirely correct. I was never a member of the Domestic Military as a child, they have no such program.”

A wide smile fills Alistair’s face, he understands the situation. “You were picked up by Blue weren’t you?” Mort doesn’t answer him Alistair takes that as a yes. “Blue, the terrorist with his radical ideas for changing the world who builds his private army by kidnapping homeless kids they find on the street and abusing them, torturing them and training them to become vicious soldiers in his little war for freedom.”

The coyote continues to grin, it all makes sense now. “That’s why they sent you, they think there’s a chance you and I might connect because they found you in the same the place they found me. With the other kids that Blue had managed to round up.”

Alistair continues to question him. “So what rank were you before the Military managed to rescue you?”

“I had no rank, I was Blue’s personal project. I was trained just as the others but he kept me close, in his sights at all times.”

Alistair shakes his head no. “You’re lying.”

“Why would I lie?”

Alistair laughs as he holds his hands out to either side of him. “No one’s ever seen Blue. He’s an enigma, so much so that some people question if he even exists.”

Mort raises his voice. “I have seen him, I have heard his voice, I felt his grip upon me, and have even been close enough to feel his breath against me. Of all the things I can vouch for in my life Blue’s physical existence is without a doubt one of them.”

“If that is true, then that means that you were important to Blue, for some reason a child in his disposable collection of soldiers was important to him. So important that he would throw away his veil of secrecy to make sure that you were near him.”

Alistair stares up at Mort for a moment longer before turning away from him. “You’ve caught my interest. I suppose if I have to listen to anyone it may as well be you.”

Mort stares at him. “Because of my history with Blue?”

Alistair nods his head. “Blue is a figure that causes trouble not just with the Domestics but the True Bloods as well. I want to know what he found so interesting about you, I want to know why out of the thousands he has come to control or manipulate how you are the only one with the privilege to see him, to be near him. I want to understand your importance, I want to understand his obsession.”

Mort opens the folder he is holding. “I’m afraid you will be disappointed. I am not an interesting person.”

“I think you don’t give yourself credit.”

Mort looks back to the boy. “The military has given you an identity, your name from now on is Alistair Quincy.”

Alistair raises an eyebrow. “Sounds silly, I want a different one.”

Mort sighs at the response. “It’s not as simple as just giving you a name. You are being given the identity of a soldier who has recently fallen in battle that has similar physical traits as you as well as no known family to identify you. We don’t have a collection of names for you to choose from until you find the one you think you like the best.”

The coyote sighs as he looks to the side. “Alistair Quincy… I guess it could be worse, and I guess I could get used to it if I hear it enough.” He looks back to Mort. “So what about you? What’s your name?”

“Louis Mort.”

“Mort…” Alistair stares at his blood filled companion, the gash he has given him bleeds out and dyes  his usual clean uniform a dark red. “I’m sorry…” Mort grabs onto Alistair as he slumps over and falls, his body weak and unable to keep him standing any longer.

Mort looks him over, placing his hand over the knife wound on Alistair that had finally stopped bleeding, his body is once again healing now that he is back in control.

Mort holsters his weapon once more, pulling Alistair to his feet as he looks back out towards the building crumbling around them. “I need to get you somewhere safe, the city is being evacuated because something happened to the Avian Military's  airships causing them to crash into the city.”

Alistair tries to respond as he attempts to move forward alongside Mort. “What happened?”

“We’ll talk more later, right now we’re focusing on getting out of here.”

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Raven Wolf - 05 - The Abandoned - Chapter 19

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