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[20:21] * MrGrey is, as usual, nosing around the Nexus. If anything, out of boredom, although there might be more reason to it. Hands in his pockets and his hat pulled low, he walks briskly.
[20:30] * Soze , meanwhile, has more of a purpose. He'd promised earlier to treat Jeff to lunch out in one of the safe, non-LOLed restaurants. He doesn't know if it's an apology or a favor or what. He hasn't mentioned leaving the Nexus in days, but that doesn't mean he isn't thinking about it.
[20:30] * Soze walks briskly as well, taking the occasional glance down at his watch. He still has a few minutes before Jeff's expecting him.
[20:34] * MrGrey does a slow double-take. Hm. He detours slightly to approach Soze, mostly out of curiousity than anything else. His PIN is in his coat pocket; his fingers curl around it out of habit.
[20:38] * Soze would have PINpointed directly to the restaurant if he were sure of its location. As is, he's caught out in the Nexus, away from the anti-violence field, and mere meters away from one of his enemies. Great. He stops walking when he sees that Grey is approaching him. He doesn't stick his hands into his pockets-- no need to make the other guy overreact-- but he does brush his hands against the side of them. PINpoint. Gun. More than that, probably. Okay.
[20:42] * MrGrey isn't looking for a confrontation. He's just bored. Damn the Nexus for giving him the randomly chatty habit. "Evening. How are you?" Easy smile.
[20:48] Soze: "Great," he says with a flat, forced cheerfulness. "And you?"
[20:49] MrGrey: "Well enough." A beat. "How is Jeff's restaurant coming along?"
[20:55] * Soze keeps the smile. "It's coming along -great-, thanks for asking." He moves to go past Grey. "Sorry," he says, voice and expression fading back to neutral, "but I'm kind of in a rush."
[20:56] MrGrey: "Where are you off to?" Grey's got nowhere to be, so he'll follow.
[20:57] * Soze continues to walk, glancing behind him as he goes. "It isn't any of your business."
[20:57] * MrGrey shrugs, continuing to walk. "Sorry to bother you." He doesn't sound all that sorry, and he's still following.
[20:58] * Soze stops suddenly, turning around to face him. "Do you mind?"
[20:59] MrGrey: "Not really. You're going my way." Grey does a very good impression of an innocent confusion.
[21:02] Soze: "I doubt that."
[21:03] * MrGrey spreads his hands, palms out. "I'm sorry if I make you nervous. I can go another way." An odd emphasis on the word 'nervous'.
[21:09] * Soze has told Jeff about this before, about how he hates this place because it makes him -fear.- Grey's words, then, earn a narrowing of his eyes. When he speaks, there's an edge to his voice that wasn't there before. "Please."
[21:19] MrGrey: The corner of Grey's mouth quirks up. "You have no reason to fear, Mr. Soze. I won't say a word to anyone."
[21:26] * Soze goes rigid. For a second, he can't believe what he just heard, but Grey -did- say that, didn't he? Grey knows. He's always known, and it's been so -fucking obvious...-
[21:27] * Soze throws on a dangerous smile. "What are you talking about?"
[21:27] MrGrey: "Please," he says, imitating Soze's earlier tone.
[21:29] * Soze clicks his tongue. He doesn't lower his eyes. "How'd you find out?"
[21:31] * MrGrey simply smiles. Why should he show his hand, even though Soze has? "It doesn't matter. And as I said, your secret is /safe/." He takes out his PINpoint, making it seem obvious that he will travel another way.
[21:37] * Soze wouldn't trust Grey with his dry cleaning, let alone his -life.- Sure, if Grey tells, he can easily jump out of the Nexus and disappear. It isn't like he wasn't considering it anyway. But he hates being boxed in, and he -sees- this, how Grey has something to hold over his head.
[21:38] Soze: "Oh, thanks, I appreciate it. I mean, I'm sure you get the importance of keeping secrets."
[21:39] MrGrey: "Mmm." Tappity tap on the PIN. Pause. "What do you mean by that, hm?"
[21:44] Soze: All Soze wants to do is punch him, -hard-, but he knows he'd probably do poorly in a physical confrontation. This would have to suffice. "I'm saying," he starts, slowly, "that I'm not the only one who likes to keep secrets."
[21:45] * MrGrey narrows his eyes, tilting his head. "Explain. Now." His voice holds command, and a warning. Tell me, or face the consequences.
[21:48] * Soze gives a short, harsh laugh, but his eyes stay dead. "Don't think I'm blind, Mr. Grey. I can see you're like me. I can see you're surrounded by something bigger than you. You have a reason for the things you do, and maybe even orders. What's stopping you from attacking me right now?"
[21:55] MrGrey: A look crosses Grey's face, moving from caution, through anger, and stopping at bland. Invisible tendrils reach out, slide around Soze's shoulders, neck, waist. "Nothing."
[22:01] * Soze was trying to get a rise out of him and -knew- he might attack, but not like this. He could have let him attack, and then he could have dodged and PINpointed away. He could have left knowing that he was winning. That he had made him break. Now, look at him.
[22:01] * Soze barely flinches when he feels the tendrils. He keeps his eyes on Grey, expression as calm as ever.
[22:12] MrGrey: Grey never moves. His control has been honed by years of practice, training, and work. If Z had wanted, he could be an assassin, and a very good one. The tendrils tighten, suddenly and painfully.
[22:14] * MrGrey reaches into his jacket and withdraws something that catches the dwindling light. His glass knife. He shouldn't take chances, but this is Soze. He wants to bleed him, just a bit, before finishing the job.
[22:20] * Soze doesn't give Grey the satisfaction of screaming, but he does gasp when the tendril tightens about his neck, forcing the air out of it. -Now- his survival instinct kicks in, buzzing in his head where there was once apathy. Though the tendrils around his shoulders make it difficult to move his arms, he struggles for his pockets, trying to recover his gun.
[22:26] MrGrey: No, no, that won't do. More tendrils wind around Soze's arms, keeping his hands from his pockets. He knows the flatscan is full of tricks, and he's not going to spend weeks in hospital again.
[22:26] MrGrey: Without hesitation, he pushes the knife into Soze's abdomen. It's very, very sharp, but doesn't go far. It's a small knife.
[22:41] * Soze chokes quietly when the knife goes in, but he doesn't lose his footing. His head is heavy with the lack of oxygen. His fingers are numb. Still, he doesn't look away from Grey as if he can still afford to be -defiant.- Things are failing, though-- his plan and maybe even his life --and in those eyes, there's also fear. Quite a bit of it, actually.
[22:45] * Jeff_Levitt began to get worried when Keyser didn't show up for lunch. For all the other faults one would be able to accurately place on Keyser, a lack of punctuality wasn't one of them. When the time went from "something's holding him up" to "okay, something is *wrong.*" He went looking for him. He rounds the corner, to see his friend bleeding and strangled.
[22:45] Jeff_Levitt: Oh my God.
[22:47] Jeff_Levitt: Without hesi--okay, let's be accurate here. Without *thinking*, he breaks into a run. It would be nice to say he has some sort of plan, but that's giving him too much credit. He just needs to *stop* this somehow.
[22:51] MrGrey: Grey is just pulling the knife back when he hears the all-too-familiar voice. /Levitt/. Momentarily startled, the tendrils loosen--the ones holding Soze's arms dissipate completely--and Grey turns to see Levitt running. /Jesus Christ, Levitt/. Blood running from his fingers and down his arm, he is caught fast. Pursue or finish it?
[22:59] * Soze takes a deep, shuddering breath before diving for his pockets again. His vision is filled with grey blobs and he can hardly direct his hands, but he finds his gun easily enough and raises it, firing blindly at Grey.
[23:02] Jeff_Levitt: [Oh Jesus...Oh Jesus...]
[23:04] * MrGrey catches the bullet in the lower back, right above his hip, and he falls hard. The tendrils drop completely.
[23:04] * Jeff_Levitt 's panting with the effort of sprinting, and they're still painfully far away. At least Gabriel seems to have been distracted momentarily. He tries to call out, but he's wheezing and out of breath. Nothing comes out.
[23:15] * Soze doesn't even pause to catch his breath after shooting Grey. Instead, disoriented, he turns and fires at the figure running towards them as well. With his oxygen starved brain and the blood dripping from his stomach, he doesn't even realize who it is. All he sees is a witness or an accomplice or just an empty shadow in his vision, moving towards him when all he needs to do is escape.
[23:18] * MrGrey raises his head, reaches out with his teke and feels for the wound, winces as he plugs it temporarily with energy--and the second shot goes off. For a moment, he's sure he's been hit again, even through the weak shield he'd thrown up in his haste, but when he looks up he sees Levitt fall.
[23:19] MrGrey: "You /idiot/. That was /Jeff/."
[23:19] * Jeff_Levitt is hit square in the knee, just as he's about to put his weight on that leg. It explodes in pain and he screams, going down *hard* onto the concrete sidewalk. He doesn't have time to brace himself, so there's nothing to soften his fall. His head hits the ground with a sickening *crack,* and he doesn't move.
[23:26] * Soze doesn't understand the words at first. He doesn't even realize they're coming from Grey-- in this wounded, winding state of his consciousness, he already considered him taken care of. He raises a shaking hand to feel the stab wound in his gut, and then it clicks. The shape of the form. The sound of the scream.
[23:26] * Soze stays absolutely still.
[23:29] MrGrey: Grey finds his feet, draws his legs up underneath himself, braces himself with one leg, stands with the help of his teke. "Even without the link, you're poisonous for him." Standing, reaching out with tendrils again, to finish what he started.
[00:11] * Soze snaps out of his trance like a switch has been flicked. He quickly raises his gun again and fires at Grey, hands perfectly steady.
[00:27] * MrGrey starts to wrap his tendrls around Soze, until the shot rings out. The energy reforms into a shield and the shot glances off of it as he starts to move... toward Levitt?
[00:34] * Soze continues to hold his gun up, aiming it at Grey. He fires another shot, desperate, before tearing after him despite the pain his stomach. He's off balance and -now- his hands are shaking, but -no one- fucks with the people that mean something to him. Still, he can see how Jeff fell, again and again, how he raised the gun and fired without even thinking, how everything is falling -apart-...
[00:37] MrGrey: Grey is quick, even with the blinding pain in his hip, his leg tingling. When he reaches Jeff he pulls his knife again, and he holds it to Levitt's neck. He bares his teeth, bloody lips peeling back from a snarl. "Put the gun down, Soze. I'll kill him, too."
[00:46] * Soze can taste blood in his mouth, but with everything around him, he hardly notices. He stares at Grey for a beat-- a very -disbelieving- beat-- and then, slowly, raises his gun. He's really sorry, Jeff, but this is how it's going to work out.
[00:50] * Soze feels like he's going to vomit, though, and his head is swimming, and somewhere behind his calm, he's screaming at himself. He doesn't mean to, but instead of pulling the trigger and plugging Jeff in the head like he's supposed to (rather die than live another day after this), his finger trembles uselessly instead.
[00:51] * MrGrey sees where Soze is pointing the gun, and doesn't even pause to make the decision. He hits the return button on his PIN, and he and Jeff disappear.
[00:58] * Soze fires after they're gone. Not to hit them, but just to -fire-, just to do -something.- In an instant, he's putting the gun to his own head... before sucking in a breath and letting his hand fall.
[00:59] * Soze can't do this. He can't do any of this. He fumbles for his PINpoint, his hands bloody from touching his stomach. He doesn't bother planning or packing or sending any letters. He types the coordinates of his home world into his PINpoint, holds the button down, and disappears.