His Heart Is Steel, Part 2

[jadedjada]

Title: His Heart is Steel, Part 2
Summary: We look into the universe from which everyone’s favorite mechanical monster first originated. A meeting is placed and a plan is set, as we begin the series of events and inner turmoils that cause the once lovable Pollo to become the evil, vengeful villain known as Mechakara.
Characters: Linkara, Spoony, Iron Liz, Doctor Insano, and mentions of Burton and Insanos son.
Warnings: Swearing, references to violence and death, etc. Child death, to be precise, in case that's a trigger for anybody.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, all characters belong to their rightful owners.

So this was a long time coming to be sure, but I finally did it! First part is here (I put it on my own journal because I figured easier access). Enjoy!

Linkara shivered as he pulled his brown jacket tighter around him. It was always cold in the base; they had all gotten used to it by now. And yet for some reason the lab was always colder than anywhere else was. He wondered how Insano could stand it.

Of course, he supposed it wasn’t just the cold that was causing him to shudder like he was. Pollos little episode earlier had rattled him quite a bit. It had happened so suddenly, and without any warning whatsoever. One minute they were just going on with their meeting, trying to motivate everyone for the task at hand, and the next his little robot buddy had come crashing down on the ground, making static-y noises the likes of which he’d never heard from him. It had very nearly petrified him.

Even now, after Marzgurl had come to him and informed him that Pollo had woken up and seemed fine, he still found himself consumed with worry over him. He had no idea what had caused him to black out like that. His best guess was that all the work he’d had to do lately was proving to be too much for his circuits to handle. That was why he had Pollo rest for the night, hoping it would be enough to relax him. Still, if Marzgurl was right about him feeling fine, it was likely that he’d be in his usual spirits come tomorrow.

As he continued to re-stack and put away the acetate and paper sheets from the presentation, he realized he also felt terribly guilty, his being there instead of by Pollos side. Still, as Marzgurl had once said to him, when considering the needs of humanity, your own needs don’t hold much weight. Linkara was positive that Pollo would understand, or at least assume the best of his intent. He was always perceptive that way.

“You know, it still baffles me that we’re even bothering to try and tidy this stuff up.” Quipped Iron Liz, walking over beside Linkara, “this place is already about as organized as a Tardis flown through a hurricane. We could just throw all this stuff on the ground, and it wouldn’t make any difference.”

Insano said nothing. He had been incredibly quiet ever since the meeting, and was now silently fitting the projector into the corner, struggling to wheel it over all the papers and debris.

“Listen, Linkara, everybody else has gone to bed and we’re almost done here. Do you mind if I turn in for the night?”

Linkara smiled. “Sure thing, Liz. You’ve been a big help today.”

Liz smiled back, giving him a quick peck on the cheek before rushing out of the incredibly messy lab and swinging the door shut behind her, leaving Linkara and Insano alone together.

Complete and utter silence filled the room. Insano had stopped with the projector and was now simply standing there, not meeting Linkaras eye. It was just as well, seeing as how Linkara was now almost afraid to look at him. For in this silence, and upon seeing Insano once again in his continually self-reserved state, he suddenly recalled his worries from before Pollos little episode, oh so many hours ago.

Don’t panic, he thought to himself as he turned hastily back towards the papers. He couldn’t jump to any conclusions, not when Insano hadn’t even said anything so far to further his worried suspicions. The risk was far too great. Yet he couldn’t seem to stop his hands from violently trembling, resolving instead to conceal them in his pockets.

Struggling to breathe calmly, he turned toward the door. Insano made no move to stop him. Relief began to sweep over him as he started to walk, believing the fates to indeed be watching him…

“No such thing as magic, huh?”

…And cruelly laughing at his misfortune.

Linkara stopped walking and turned to face Insano, who had lost much of his tense demeanor and was now looking back at him without hesitation. His mind scrambling for a thought, he eventually decided to play dumb. “What are you on about, Insano?” he asked.

“During the meeting? Literally seconds before the incident with Pollo?” Insano seemed to be reminding him, although his tone suggested that he wasn’t buying the act for a second, “I suggested magic as an argument to your claim of us having had no easier way to defeat PAOLA, and you responded by telling me there’s no such thing.”

Linkara bit his lip nervously, considering whether or not he should just come clean now, and save himself the stress.

“I know, of course,” Insano continued on before he could choose, “that none of us have believed in magic for a long time now. Your quite apparent evidence to the contrary saw to that.”

“I-I don't..."

"Still, I can't help but think how odd it seems that you, of all people, the one who insisted more than anyone not only that it existed, but that you used it all the time, would now be so insistent that it doesn't."

“Insano…”

“You used to believe in magic,” Insano went on, “Or at least said that you did. Then, suddenly and for very sketchy reasons, you didn’t. Told everyone why you were absolutely certain it didn’t, and nobody questioned any of it. And why should they? You are, after all, our leader. We wouldn’t have insisted you take charge if we didn’t know for sure that you’d always do what was best for everyone, now would we?”

“Insano…I-I don’t know what to tell you…”

“You know perfectly well what to tell me!” Insano snapped suddenly, losing his previous serenity. “You just don’t want to do it! You’d rather just keep pretending you don’t know what I’m talking about than admit to the little secret you’re keeping on your person at this very moment!” and with that he pointed to the thing Linkara had been dreading he bring up: the gun holster on his right hip.

He did know.

Linkara sighed, his immense nervousness now giving way to immense guilt. Reluctantly, he pulled out from his holster the gun in which it had remained every minute he wasn’t shooting it. It was a simple looking weapon, like any other gun save for one thing that only a close examiner would notice: there was no way of loading it. That was because this wasn’t truly like any other gun.

It was a magic gun.

“How did you find out?” he asked.

“I was once your arch nemesis, if you’ll recall. And although I may not have always been considered entirely formidable by anyone, least of all you, I certainly at least had the brains to study up on my own enemies. You know, their strengths, their weaknesses…their artillery. You remember the little incident last summer, yes?”

“You mean when you tried to screw up hyper-time with a bad comic about a professional wrestler?”

“At least I didn’t succeed! Anyway, while you were busy ranting about the shameful portrayal of Hoak Hogan, I managed to sneak your gun away, take a few notes on it, and put it back. After all this time and all that’s happened, I had completely forgotten about it. That is until yesterday, when I stumbled upon the notes whilst looking through my research archives.”

“You mean your old Weird Science binder?”

“You’re evading the point! The point is, upon looking through them again I noticed quite a few things that, needless to say, didn’t exactly support your whole ‘no such thing as magic’ theory!”

Linkara found himself sighing again, as he looked down at the weapon still in his hand. In all the months of covering up and making stories, he hadn’t counted on his former arch foe knowing too much. It was a mistake he now regretted with every fiber of his being.

“Why did you do it?” Insano asked, no longer sounding so much angry as he did sad and confused. “Why did you lie to everybody? What reasoning could you possibly have for keeping from us the most powerful asset we could ever have hoped for? Were you afraid it would be too easy for us to survive??”

“No! It’s…it’s nothing like that.” Was all Linkara could think to say.

“It’s not too late, you know.” He pressed, “In a few days we’ll be preparing for a battle bigger than any we’ve had before. These machines have never faced anything like magic before! They wouldn’t be able to understand or comprehend it! If you’d just let me hone the magic in that gun…”

“Insano…I can’t.”

“Well why in the Sam Hell not??” Now Insano was angry again, “Do you realize that if we had this kind of artillery at our disposal, the chances of anyone dying on this mission would become virtually microscopic?? Not to mention the fact that it’s probably the only source of magic left in the world!”

“I know that.”

“So what exactly is it about that stupid gun that you don’t want to share with anybody???”

Linkara was silent for a moment, deep in thought, before ultimately deciding that at this point, Insano deserved the truth. “You really want me to tell you?”

“I really do.”

“Alright.” Linkara said, taking a deep breathe and sitting himself down on one of the stools beside the counter on which he had been sorting. “You remember how I told you all what happened on your way here?”

Insano stiffened a little. “You mean…what happened to Harvey, NSD and 80s Kid?”

“90s Kid, but yes, that’s what I mean.” Linkara felt his throat tighten as he painfully recalled the night that was now so far gone, yet remained as sharp a memory as if it were only a few days ago. Everything from the three still bodies on the ground to Liz’s despairing shrieks upon finding them echoed through his inner vision, twisting and turning along with the knife he felt in his very heart as he recalled them.

“I told you,” he continued, willing his voice not to crack, “that when we were all facing an attack by PAOLA-bots, the weapons that they had been using short-circuited on them, leaving them long dead by the time Iron Liz and I had done fighting them.”

Insano nodded, solemnly.

“What I didn’t tell you,” Linkara sighed, “was how terribly I blamed myself for it.”

“No…” Insano began to protest, before Linkara put up a hand to stop him.

“I was the one who insisted that they used the weapons they did. It was my power-morpher that Harvey used instead of his usual Tommy gun, my phaser that replaced 90s Kids BFG. I thought they would be more effective.”

“You had no way of knowing about PAOLAs overriding capabilities!”

“I realize that now,” replied Linkara, “but I didn’t then. I felt so incredibly guilty over what happened that it put me in complete and utter despair. So that night, after we had buried their bodies near the almost finished base and everybody else was sleeping…I shot myself.”

“You…” Insano did a double take. “I’m sorry, you what??”

“Shot myself. In the head.” Linkara held up his magic gun plainly for him to see. “With this gun.”

Insano simply leaned against the wall and stared at him for a moment, clearly at a complete loss for words. “Well…” he said finally, “…looking good, I guess.”

“I didn’t die, of course.”

“Yeah, I was kinda wondering about that…”

“It had been my intention,” Linkara said hesitantly, “at least at first. But when I put the gun against my head and pulled the trigger…something happened. Something that changed everything.”

“What happened?”

Linkara thought for a moment before replying. “It’s hard to explain. To be honest, I really doubt I could do the moment justice. The best way I can describe it to you would be to say the magic gun…spoke to me.”

The way Insano looked at him, you would think he was growing a rhino horn on his forehead. “…The gun spoke to you.”

“Yep.”

“As in, it literally started speaking?"

“Well, sort of. There definitely was a voice, but it didn’t seem to be coming from the gun. Not entirely, anyway. It was more like…like I had entered some sort of dream. Only I knew it wasn't a dream! Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Not at all, no."

Despite the doctors’ quite apparent confusion, Linkara was finding himself getting more and more comfortable in telling him his story, even though he realized he shouldn’t be. Suddenly he felt as though all along he had desperately wanted to share this wondrous secret of his, having spent so long concealing it within his memory.

“Like I said, it’s hard to explain.” He said, now pacing around the room as he spoke, “There’s a lot about it that even I don’t understand. But I’m telling you right now, this wasn’t my imagination. It really did happen. This gun…my gun…somehow could see me about to take my own life, and knew that I shouldn’t. So rather than take a blast to the head like I was expecting, I was pulled into this dream…trance…thing, where I could hear the guns voice. …And she told me about herself.

“She??” Insano asked incredulously, “the gun’s a girl now??”

“Is that the part that bumps you?”

“It’s one of them…”

Linkara rolled his eyes. “Yes, the gun’s a girl. A young girl, to be precise, around 13 years old. She said she couldn’t quite remember; that a lot of details were hazy. She couldn’t even tell me her name.”

Insano was sitting down at this point. It was clear that he was becoming more and more intrigued by this story, despite still being somewhat skeptical. But then, it was likely that he hadn’t exactly been expecting what the truth really was. If he had, Linkara figured he probably wouldn’t have confronted him.

“A long time ago,” Linkara solemnly explained, “This gun was actually a human being. Specifically she was a little girl in a small town that no longer exists. Well, technically most towns no longer exist, but this was obviously long before that. Her parents, as it turns out, were worshipers of this powerful outer God, and had joined up with this secret religious cult before she had even been born. Their cult were in the mind that in order for their God to be on this Earth, they needed to purge it of non-believers. So they devised a plan to usher in their paradise, to cleanse the world of those who did not believe, to forge a weapon that would smite whomever or whatever they so desired. This…it turns out…was why they had had her in the first place. So that she could be drained of her essence and ritually transformed into said weapon.”

“So…it was like something from Silent Hill?”

Linkara bit his lip in anxiety before responding. “Yeah. Yeah, it was a lot like that.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m not.” Insano flinched at the sudden intensity in Linkaras voice, who then immediately paused to compose himself, wiping sweat from his brow. Somehow the room seemed a lot less cold now than he did before. Either that or he was tired from his now almost frantic pacing.

“Needless to say,” he sighed, “the ritual was successful. This child did everything her parents wanted. She put everything into the ritual. All her feelings, her emotions, her thoughts…it seemed as though she’d poured her very soul into it. Their own daughter lost everything that she was, and they finally had their weapon.” Linkara looked down at his magic gun, gripping it tightly in his hand, “This weapon. But there was a catch to it.”

"What kind of catch?"

“Those emotions of hers they forced into the gun? They were not happy emotions. You see, rather than become weak and hopeless like they had predicted, the girl instead became very angry, and hateful towards her parents upon realizing just how little they had cared all her life. She still did what they wanted; still let them complete their ritual, but not because she had nothing left. No, it was because despite everything she’d lost, everything she’d suffered through, there was still one thing, and one thing only, that she could turn her determined thoughts towards. Something that she had to become what they wanted in order to truly fulfill. That something, according to her, was revenge.”

Insano opened his mouth as though he was going to say something, only to lose it again and turn his fixation once more towards the ground.

“So when the cultists eventually tried to use their new weapon for their righteous cause, instead of doing so when they pulled the trigger, she was able to turn her power on them. She plunged their psyches into nightmares too horrible for them to comprehend, her parents being the very last to be allowed to die from it.” Linkara hesitated before adding, “she was very vague about it when describing it to me, but she seemed to look upon the memory with a bit of fondness."

“Let me get this straight.” spoke up Insano, sheer and utter bafflement clear in his voice, “You’re telling me that this “magic gun” of yours is actually powered by the spirit of some angry demon-child? Call me crazy, but doesn't that seem a little, um...dangerous?”

“No, not at all!" Linkara answered hastily, "That's the funny thing about it, actually! The girl's not angry anymore!"

“You have officially lost me.”

“It’s really quite simple! After the girl got her revenge, after everyone who had brought about all the rage and hate she used against them were all dead, she realized that she had nobody left to hate, no reason to be angry or vengeful anymore. So…she wasn’t. Those feelings she had that drove her to do what she did became separated from her when she did them, so that in the end, her spirit was the only thing left. No vengeance, no rage-induced bursts of extreme power, there’s just her. A girl in a gun. And you know what else? She’s okay with that now. She’s over it”

"Over it?” Insanos voice was very nearly inaudible by this point, yet still he pressed for more.

“She told me so herself.” Linkara smiled a little in spite of himself, holding his gun against his chest as though it were incredibly fragile. “She also told me how I couldn’t possibly go through with killing myself; not while so many people were depending on me more than ever. She ended up reminding me just how important my leadership was to everyone, and how much I needed to continue for the sake of everything that I stood for, everything I had promised myself that I would do. The truth was that I had been completely selfish about the whole thing. You lot needed me, Liz and Pollo needed me, the world needed me. Most of all, though, at least the most striking to me at the time, was that she needed me.”

“The gun? How does the gun need you?? How does she even know who you are?? It’s not as though she has eyes, or...God, do you even know how crazy you sound right now??“

“I told you, I can’t explain it, and quite frankly I don’t really think I have to. It’s magic. All I know is somehow she does see me, and has been with me ever since I got her all those years ago. She told me that she needs me because I’m the only thing she knows that doesn’t involve pain or immense fury. As far as she’s concerned, my life has been the only life she’s ever known; the only decent one, anyway. And…and I’ve been good to her. At least, that’s what she said…”

“You didn’t even know she was there for the longest time…”

“Compared to the people whose idea of parenting involved ritual sacrifice and murder, I’ve been good to her!”

“Point taken.”

“So I didn’t go through with it. I woke up the next morning feeling great, more confident than I ever had before, to the point where Liz and Pollo kept asking me about it. They wondered how I could be so optimistic under such conditions.”

“But you didn’t tell them.”

“Well, no, I didn’t. I couldn’t. Don’t you get it, Insano? I have no idea what we’re dealing with here. I may be well versed enough in terms of things like elemental sorcery, or the power of the mighty Zeo crystal and all that, but this? This is something entirely different, something I couldn’t possibly understand completely. And you know what? Neither could you. Tell me something, Insano. Suppose I did let you hone the power in this gun, to create all sorts of weapons and power sources for us to fight with. What would happen to her??”

Insano said nothing.

“You don’t know! Of course you don’t! Neither of us does! How could we? And I’m sorry, Insano, but I just can’t take that risk. Not if it could mean losing her so soon after learning I even had her.”

Linkara paused. Insano still said nothing.

“I realized this," he sighed, "even before you and Spoony showed up, and you told us everything you’d discovered about how important magic could be, and made up my mind that I wouldn’t tell anybody about her. So yes, I did lie. I lied and told everyone that magic didn’t exist after all. I lied to protect her, Insano.”

"But at what cost?" Inquired Insano, who seemed to have finally found his voice again. "Think about it! All the people who still live, whether here or hiding out somewhere else in the world, are somehow suffering from the aftermath of this epidemic! Imagine if you will, the way they’d all react to seeing a sudden new form of defense, one more powerful than anything they could have ever imagined. Such rejoicing there’d be, people hailing us as heroes after we effortlessly save their lives! Think of the possibilities!”

“I don’t care!” Linkara retorted, only somewhat aware of just how cold and heartless that sounded. He realized that he had not entirely expected Insano to remain so strongly opposed to his actions after having heard the reasoning behind them, and was very much annoyed about it.

"Why does this even matter anymore? We just figured out a way to beat PAOLA! We’re literally days away from putting our plan into action, a plan we spent months figuring out! We don’t need any kind of advancements at this point!”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Linkara.” Insano coolly replied, "True, our revolution may be very nearly at hand, but you yourself said that it would be exceptionally risky. If you'd only permit me, I could very easily reduce the chances of any casualties during the-”

“Why don’t you understand???” Linkara snapped suddenly, interrupting the scientists overture. His patience had worn thin phenomenally quickly, and he was growing angrier in his defensiveness by the minute. “Do you not get what I’m doing here?? Why I'm doing it?? Has nothing I’ve said been able to get through to that warped mind of yours??" He slammed his gun down on the counter behind him, glaring at Insano as though he were daring him to go on with his idea.

Insano was silent for a moment, seemingly searching for words in a now somewhat anxious manner. Linkaras outburst had clearly taken him aback, though not nearly enough to make him relent. “I do understand.” Was what he finally said, “Better now that I know all this than ever before, believe me. But that still doesn’t give you the right! You have to realize that your thinking on this matter has been completely illogical!”

“How can you say that?” Linkara whispered incredulously.

“You’ve been blinded by your affection for this apparent gun-girl, Linkara. Whether you fully realize it or not, you are actually willing to put all our lives at stake here, not because we have to, but because you’re desperate to protect something you don’t even know is really there! And even if she was, you need to understand that her life, if you could even call it a life, is not of nearly as much importance as the lives of the entire human race!”

Linkara was borderline furious now. How dare Insano say such things about her? He knew perfectly well that the experience he’d had was completely real. It was not something any person could simply imagine! The pure arrogance in his words were baffling, not to mention insulting.

“What exactly do you know about it, anyway? Nothing, that's what! And I don't need to listen to your self-righteous rambling!"

"Self-righteous?? I'm not the one trying to justify themselves here, bucko! I'm the one trying to do what's best for everyone else!"

...All right, maybe not arrogance. But certainly there was cold-heartedness in what he said, and it pissed him off to no end.

“Do you even hear yourself? You’re saying that you’d put this girls life on the line just to give our team some unnecessary boost. We don’t need it half as much as you want it!”

Insano took a step back. “If you're insinuating-”

“You know what I think? I think you just want the chance to show yourself off as the hero. Impress everybody with your oh-so precious inventions, getting praise once again for your latest movement in saving the damn world. Because hey, if you save the world, that makes up for everything, right? That will make people actually trust you!”

“I...”

“Well, I got news for you, Insano! It isn't going to work! Nobody here's going to start thinking of you as trustworthy, let alone a hero! I'll certainly be damned if I ever put the lives of our group into your hands, let alone the life of an innocent CHILD!”

That last word was out before Linkara even had a chance to think about it. It hung between them like a toxic fume, filling the air until it was all that echoed in his ears. Plain as day he could see how it struck Insano, immediately stripping away all defensiveness and pride from his demeanor, leaving nothing but pure shocked silence and a facial expression that was agonizing to look at.

He'd gone too far. Typical.

“Insano, I'm sorry.” Linkara said hurriedly. “I didn't mean it like that, really, I just...”

“You're right.” Insano muttered. He was back to looking down at the papers on the floor. “I shouldn't be interfering. What you do with this team is your affair, not mine. And you clearly know what's best.”

Linkara was stung by the bitterness in his voice. “Insano...”

“I'll just return to my quarters. Liz is right; this place is too far gone anyway.” With that, he pushed past Linkara and all but ran out of the lab and down the hallway.

For a long time Linkara just stood there, leaning against the counter and trembling. That did not go well, not at all. He felt bad for what he'd said to Insano, yet at the same time...he held his magic gun to his chest and let out a shuddering sigh. He just couldn't believe it. Months of taking precautions, keeping the truth to himself, only to be discovered now of all times, by Insano of all people...

“Hey.”

Linkara nearly jumped out of his skin. For a moment he thought Insano had come back, and his mind began scrambling again for something he could say to him. But he turned instead to see Spoony, standing at the doorway looking quite a bit groggy, and more than a little concerned.

Linkara swallowed. “How much did you overhear?”

“Nothing of substance. Just vague shouting. My guess is it was nothing good though, with the way the Doc came barging in our room.” Spoony replied before walking in and raising his eyebrows in that inquisitive-and-slightly-pissed-off way he has. “Dare I even ask what happened?”

What could he tell him? Not the truth, that was for sure. “We just...disagreed on something. Something stupid. It got heated for no reason. It was nothing.”

“Except it's never really nothing, is it? For fucks' sake, Linkara...” Spoony sighed, sat down on the stool and began rubbing his temples. “You know this is the fourteenth time something like this has happened, right? I've been keeping count.”

Linkara looked down. “I know.”

“And I really thought it was getting better, you know, what with the whole “team up to stop PAOLA” thing you guys had going on. I mean, that kept you out of breaking into fights for almost a month.”

“I know, and I'm sorry...”

“You always say that!” Spoony slammed his fist on the table. “Every fucking time this happens you say that! 'I know, I'm sorry, I understand' ...except you don't! Clearly you don't understand, or else it wouldn't keep happening!” Linkara bit his lip and didn't reply.

“When are you gonna learn, huh? When are you gonna learn to start trusting him? He's changed, goddammit! He's different now! You gotta believe me, man! I know him better than anyone, and I am telling you that he's not the same guy you grew to hate. He's not the same guy that he was before...you know...”

There was silence between the two men. From Spoony because he was out of breath, and from Linkara because he'd had this conversation a hundred times before, and knew it was only a matter of awaiting what came next. Sure enough, Spoony eventually let out a sigh and reached into his jean back pocket. Out he pulled the old photo he always carried, gazing at it with far away eyes. It was a photo Linkara knew well; one of Spoony and Insano sitting next to each other on the couch. Spoony, with an expression indicating he was trying to mask amusement with annoyance, and Insano, grinning and cackling like the merry madman he used to be.

And sitting on Insanos' lap, fidgeting and bouncing so that his image was slightly blurred, was the essence of the scientists' happiness. The fractured memory of his happier days, the little ball of joy that completed his character in ways nobody would realize until it was much too late.

Insanos' son. His only son.

His former son.

“It really was my fault, you know.” Spoony said finally. His voice was shuddering, and there were tears in his eyes.

“No.” Linkara said firmly. “It wasn't.”

“Burton was my fucking robot. Mine. And I was arrogant enough to think I'd built him strong enough to be beyond manipulation. I was stupid enough to leave him with Insano and...and...well, Christ! I don't have to fucking say it, do I??” Spoony was close to sobbing now. Linkara could only let him vent. “I'd gotten close to him. I really had. Even if he was annoying at times...he brought out the best in that old lug of a scientist...he made me see the good in him...the poor little guy...” He fell silent.

“Spoony...” Linkara whispered, his arm over his friends' shaking shoulders, “You had no way of knowing what PAOLA was capable of. Not the overriding stuff, not how it got into Burtons' head, none of it. It took us all by surprise, and there was nothing we could do.” Now Linkara was starting to break, and the look on Spoonys' face said that he understood what he meant.

“Look, Linkara...you have to give Insano a chance. I mean it. What happened back in Arizona...it had an effect on him. He would never go using his “SCIENCE” for evil after seeing what harm it could do. And he would do anything for the rebellion. You have to know that. Nobody wants PAOLA finished more than he does.”

Linkara sighed. “I believe you.” And he did.

Spoony nodded, standing up. “I should go check on him now, actually.” he said, wiping his eyes. “He's probably still awake, and a wreck.”

“Yeah. You do that.”

Spoony walked out, leaving Linkara again alone in his thoughts. Without a word he walked across the room to lean against the wall, on his knees, and listen.

“Go away, Spoony.”

“Can't exactly do that, Doc. This is my room too, remember. And since I'm here, I might as well tell you Linkara's sorry for what happened.”

“I'm sure he is. Now please leave me alone already! I don't need your comfort! I don't...I don't deserve it...”

A pause. And then “Well tough. Because I'm never leaving your side anyway.”

Then Linkara heard it. Loud, shrieking, hysterical sobs, echoing from the wall. He didn't even need to lean to hear anymore, so instead he simply sat there, overcome with guilt as the sound of Insanos' wails hit his ears, coupled with the odd “sssh, it's okay” from Spoony.

He looked down at his gun again. He hated that it had caused this much trouble, trouble that he'd tried so hard to avoid. Yet still he told himself it couldn't be helped. Holding back tears of his own, he pressed the side of the gun to his lips and closed his eyes.

He had seen the grief and agony of someone losing their child.

He was not going to go through the same thing.

Comments

[jadedjada.livejournal.com]

D'aww, you make me blush kind sir! ...ma'am! Whatever! I'm glad you liked it. :D

More is coming, incidentally, don't nobody worry. Imma try my damndest to NOT take over a year to release the next chapter this time. :s