Title: Apologia Pro Vita Sua (Chapter 24)
Authors: Scorpions
angelinaii,
murasaki_plum,
nemesis_cryCharacters/Pairings: All (kangteuk, shichul, kihae; potential kyuwook, eunkihae, shihanchul, yeshdong, yewook, minry)
Rating: PG-13 to R
Genre: AU, organized crime, postcyberpunk
Summary: In a world where money and crime go hand and hand, survival is not determined by the fittest, but the ones who will fight to live.
Warnings: violence, swearing, sexual situations
Introduction and Chapter 1 |
Chapters 2 & 3 |
Chapter 4 |
Chapter 5 |
Chapter 6 |
Chapter 7 |
Chapter 8 |
Chapter 9 |
Chapter 10 |
Chapter 11 |
Chapter 12 |
Chapter 13 |
Chapter 14 |
Chapter 15 |
Chapter 16 |
Chapter 17 |
Chapter 18 |
Chapter 19 |
Chapter 20 |
Chapter 21 |
Chapter 22 |
Chapter 23 Banner by
angelinaiiPV by
murasaki_plum Cold blue light painted their faces as the metal front doors swung open, the tell-tell click of shoes on floors scrubbed clean specifically for this visit warning of another presence. Eeteuk leaned against the wall, counting the number of footsteps, aware that the men at his sides were doing the same.
Sungmin held up six fingers behind his back, waiting in the front line.
Kangin nodded and crossed his arms as the door opened. The small entourage entered in one by one, lining themselves up as in artificial shield for the don to stand behind.
"Who invited them?" One of the men barked at Yesung's form in the corner. Before H&E's goons could reach for their guns or Yesung could open his mouth, Eeteuk lifted a hand.
"I thought we should have an impartial mediator here... as impartial as you could get with them on your payroll." Eeteuk shrugged, brushing hair from his eyes as he spoke, his words directed through the guard to the man standing behind him. "This matter concerns their jurisdiction as much as it does ours. Is that acceptable to you?"
There was a moment's respite, silence telling Eeteuk that he was dealing with a spokesman rather than the actual top brass. Good to know, but useless information at present.
"We don't discuss with murdering scum," a voice snapped, gruff tones reminding of the bloodbath he'd brought to their doorstep.
Eeteuk suppressed a smile, pushing back from the wall with his foot. "Nor do I, but out of courtesy for this young lady, maybe we should," he replied, nodding toward the white sheet covered body on the slab.
Yesung also stepped forward, pulling down the sheet to reveal the woman's face. "Jang Miyoung, age 23."
"Word has it that this young woman's death has gone beyond your normal oversight and has caused more trouble than it is worth."
A palm shoved one of the goons aside, making way for a tall man in his thirties. "Accidents happen," he answered dismissively, a glare in his eye belying his true intent. His fist clenched when Eeteuk ran a finger along a frosty strand of hair.
"She wasn't an accident," he retorted. "She was tortured and killed by a man you paid. We know you were conned, you know you were conned. How many more wives and daughters... and mistresses do you want to die before you do something about it?"
"You didn't secure your man, and now you have lost control," Kangin interjected, slowly joining the group around the table. Smiling at the man, he added, "You're revealing a weakness at a bad time, with as many organizations unhappy as they are...I don't know, they might take advantage."
"We aren't threatening you," Eeteuk continued. "We want to end this."
The man's gaze flickered between them. "The police has been making progress in the investigation--"
"But they'll not stop this from happening again and again," Eeteuk intervened. "Not as long as you are lying to them and to yourselves."
"Judoh PD is offering all involved here immunity to all that is disclosed." Yesung spoke up, covering the woman's face. "If you are trying to suppress this problem on your own, it is clear you have not had the desired results. We need a name, potential whereabouts. If you wish to only tell us and not the Triad, that is fine, but the more sides involved in this the sooner this can be addressed. Face it, this is making us all look bad."
The victim was pushed back into a metal compartment, the door sliding shut and locking her in darkness.
The man looked away, liking his lips. "There is no man."
Kangin snorted with disbelief.
"There is no man... because she's a woman."
***
Long, dark bangs obscured her eyes when she appeared, out of nowhere, in the conference room. She didn't sit down, not even when invited to. She just looked ahead, regardless of who spoke to her. It wasn't until someone asked her name, pointing an automatic against her back that she moved for the first time, snapping the bone in three places and turning the fist still clasping the weapon onto the men around the table.
"Hierarchical organization favoring a symbolic preference for the right hand. I have twenty-two bullets left." She said nothing else, she barely even looked tense.
It got their attention.
The woman picked them to serve the means to her ends, she knew precisely what she wanted and how to get it. She explained, dispassionately, why they would want to aide her. And they agreed. Against their better judgment, against all precedent, they agreed to fund her operation and offer her manpower. After all, why not? The cost was minimal, the risks all the more so.
They wouldn't even have to meet with her again; all would be done via the net.
It was the perfect business transaction and whichever way they looked at it, the benefits outweighed the risks.
She didn't ask for much for the compensation, only a small percentage of the profits and to preserve select parts for her own use. No one asked, nor cared to ask about why she needed them, though most reasoned that she was saving the organs to start up a black market of her own. A market that was growing. At a time when the majority of Judoh found themselves with artifically created limbs and organs, the upper crust's demands grew for outdated transplants.
Purists were frequent among the rich and powerful. Where implants were once the rage, natural, live things were more expensive and more desirable. The H&E had clients who wouldn't mind the option and now, finally, they were offered a supply.
The fairytale deal was too good to be true.
***
"Some of us speculated that she was... building people. Half machine, half biological. Just like she was." A sigh. "It didn't become relevant until we ceased receiving the products. We held back on the funds, but we received no reply. Our... people are working for her now. We've lost contact."
Your people are dead, Eeteuk wanted to point out but kept the information to himself.
"Who is she?"
"We only know little about her, from what our intel show, she was one of BCI's first prototypes. Back from when it was still just a military experiment." The man pulled a disc from his jacket and handed it over to Yesung. "All we have that she hasn't erased. By our guess she's barely organic."
Eeteuk nodded, slowly considering the coincidence. "Have your systems been hacked yet?" A half-smile, offering information for information as he added: "Ours have. Twice. We know she is to blame for both intrusions. We understand she's now playing a game. There's a timer attached to her messages."
The man arched an eyebrow. "A timer? Like a countdown? To what?"
Truth would have been a mistake. Eeteuk opted for ignorance. "We don't know. Until her next victim, until she blows up Judoh and everyone in it. All is equally possible."
"It's running down." Kangin glanced at the watch on his wrist. "Three hours and counting. So where can we find this girl? A name?"
"It's on the--"
"We're pressed for time," Eeteuk interrupted, forcefully. "What's her name?"
Sungmin stepped away from the wall, body taunt with tension.
"She calls herself Aoki. That's all we know."
***
Yesung sped through the streets on his motorcycle, having slipped out of the room at the mention of the prototypes. Only two in the institute's history were on record. Pulling up to a stop in front of the warehouse, he strode inside toward the slumped figure in the corner. "Who is she?"
Dark eyes met his full on, recognizing where usually they would stare right through him. What should have been normal was laden with aberration.
"Who?" The metallic edge was gone, left in its aftermath the kind of broken sound of an old music recording. Yesung didn't really give a damn, but he recognized the sentiment.
"The girl, who is she?" Yesung pulled Kyuhyun up to his feet. "Ryeowook told me you weren't the only kid they turned into a machine back then. Unless H&E's lying, she's been the one who's been fucking with us. You knew about her all of this time, didn't you? Had us searching for some man when you could've had us searching for the right person."
There was no virtual connection to escape to and the lack of it was painfully obvious when Kyuhyun closed his eyes, seeing nothing but black.
"I don't... She would have been eliminated. Her programming was twisted..."
"She escaped with you, didn't she?" he shook the younger man's shoulders, forcing him to look at him.
Kyuhyun's hands grasped his wrists, the advantage only temporary before Yesung found himself shoved back. "She disappeared long before I did. A flawed model. The assumption was that she was dead. Executed or otherwise."
Images transported him. The faceless man. The game. Tag, you're it. Aoki's eye in his mind.
The pattern.
"It was real, wasn't it?"
"I wasn't trying to make you think it was real. I just wanted you to see it."
"Oh." Kyuhyun gripped Yesung's arm, the room spinning beyond his control. Retching, he fell forward on his knees, a cold chill coursing through him. "She made me think he was real. The faceless man...like the cat...it was real."
To his credit, Yesung held fast, sliding to the ground by his side.
"What cat?" he mumbled, wondering if their bionic friend had finally lost his mind to the implants inside him. "So you do know her..." he noted dispassionately, holding Kyuhyun back when his body lurched forward again, dry heaving for lack of anything to throw up.
"The cat I made...she must have found me. That's all this is, getting back at me because I wouldn't let her in."
Yesung frowned, trying to piece together what he could understand between broken gasps with what he'd heard from the men at the morgue. "If it's... hey, listen to me, if it's you she wants, why did she take Ryeowook? Why..." Why him and not you? Why does he have to suffer for you? You don't deserve this.
"Because he's the only one," Kyuhyun gasped, the unfamiliar sensation of tears rolling down his cheeks. "It's the only way she can hurt me."
Watching with bewilderment, Yesung settled him back against the wall, just as he'd found him, and crouched beside him, burying his face in his hands. That bitch. Whoever, wherever she was, that bitch, he thought. She'd have been welcome to the machine boy, but Ryeowook should have been off limits. Kyuhyun should have hidden him.
Yesung should have protected him.
"We'll find her," he muttered to cold, unfamiliar ground. "We'll find her--can she feel pain?" A sharp glance in Kyuhyun's direction told him that was as much false assurance as it was sincere promise. The contradiction was impossible, but questioning it now was irrelevant.
"Probably." Kyuhyun answered with a shrug. He never knew how far they altered her, but if she was anything like him, she would.
"We'll find her," Yesung repeated, the words a mantra in his head. "We'll find her and we'll make her pay." Revenge was not a precept he lived by but for Ryeowook, he could make an exception. He would.
He had to.
He had to know he wasn't alone.
Glancing to the man at his side, he bit his lip. "Tell me something... are you ready to die for Ryeowook?" he asked and for once, it was more than petty, wishful thinking.
There was no hesitation in his answer. "Yes."
Something caught in his chest, uncomfortable and tight, but Yesung accepted it. "Good." It was hypothetical, but a necessary provision to keep Kyuhyun from friendly fire. It was all that could.
A car pulled up outside the warehouse, the door swinging open abruptly. Eeteuk's gaze barely seemed to register the state they were in as it flickered from one to the other before finally settling on the blond.
"Kyuhyun? You have to die."