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 Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 11:24 am
Rin wasn't listening, perhaps in shock. They were all in shock. No time for it. "Back to the portal," Jordan said. He desummoned Ferros and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Zoobey Text to Allan: On our way back. There have been complications.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 11:47 am
At the order, Rep turned to join them. Distant, detached. Shut down.
He followed wherever Jordan led without a word, staring at the ground.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 12:01 pm
Jerry's sobs had quieted, his face behind the mask of gore lax, distant as he fell behind them, making sure Rep knew Roar was aimed at his back, should he even think about chickening out and making a run for it.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 12:45 pm
Harrison froze at the soft rest in peace, turning around sharply with both daggers in hand.
"Don't you say that s**t," Harrison gritted out, "Just <******** you. You think that was just some harmless old lady with the technology to make a magic ******** cliff and who was friends with creatures that feed off our nightmares? You think that was safe, that it was okay? And you're questioning orders and hugging onto her and bickering instead of getting the hut secured and checking the other ones? We didn't have the intel, and we should have been playing it safe until we were sure. That was dangerous as ******** and disabling the team was a shitty thing to do, Rep."
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 12:55 pm
The walk back was simple, uneventful, the telltale trail of black ichor still as it had been on the trek to the village. The barrier was also still active and a little beyond the soft blue of the portal. All other noise was drowned out by the rustle of leaves, the creeking and hissing and buzzing of the rainforest. The walk seemed longer, stifling hot, noisy wet and clammy, the moisture - was that their sweat or the blood staining their skin - too warm.
It felt like that eternity before they finally, quietly exited. A death row.
Cool air greeted the trainees, followed by the scent of warm food. On the counters of Allan's suite were trays and trays of colourful, exotic sushi, a rather generous helping of foreign sweets and what seemed like a giant plush red teddy bear with a kilt.
The Sun lead was seated on one of the many seats at the counter, putting down his volume of Naruto to beam at the trainees. "Welcome back trainee-tachi!" He leaned over to grab two bottles of Ramune. "How did everything go?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 1:09 pm
Rin hadn't even acknowledged Harrison. Not one ******** bit as she marched off far ahead of the others back into the jungle. Alone.
Once she reached the clearing, there she sat and waited. Quietly hopeful the weak little shadows would start coming again. That they'd just go back in time to where they were, what they were doing before... she wasn't willing to go home. Not yet, they only just started... the mission wasn't over... was it? No. They'd only just arrived, really. Nothing had happened yet, okay?
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 1:20 pm
Rin had charged off, and it was either leave her unprotected or leave the team unprotected. Why couldn't people understand how to do basic survival s**t. When they found her again at the end of the trail, he gave her a nasty look before stepping through the portal.
Harrison was still splattered with blood.
He looked wearily at Allan, any kind of response to that question drying up in his throat.
He sat down and struggled to open a Ramune bottle instead.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 1:36 pm
Simon didn't greet the group, just finished folding their napkins for a moment before turning to look at the trainees. Their bloody appearances made him still, and his focus intensified as he tried to figure out which one had been injured to that point. It may have been his interest was for treatment purposes, but more likely it was to see if he'd finally get to put Jerry or Rep down.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 1:40 pm
Unfortunately for Simon, Jerry shuffled his way through the portal, (after giving Rin a shove with Roar's muzzle in the direction of their gateway home), practically blind with the amount of gore congealing on his glasses. His face was caked, as was his coat and scarf and jumpsuit. An occasional orange runic flame hiccuped from the bazooka's nozzle but he refused to desummon it even as they stopped in the room beyond.
He very carefully, said nothing.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 1:45 pm
Jordan waited until Rep had stepped through the portal, then gently urged Rin through, stepping through last. "Sir," he said to Allan. His eyes flicked to Simon; he hesitated only a moment before recounting the events of the mission simply and without emotion, his eyes fixed on some faraway point.
When he'd finished, he took a careful breath and added, "I didn't foresee the problem in time to prevent it. I'm sorry, sir."
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 1:49 pm
Rep took one look around the room, at the set up, lingering just a little longer on the bear than anywhere else before freezing up entirely all over again and staring blankly at the floor.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 1:51 pm
Rin was given a bump towards the portal by Roar, what was going on? Where was everyone going? They weren't done yet. She stumbled to her feet. Eyes just mutely pleading with them.
She couldn't argue though, Jordan had her and lead her through to the other side. There she just shuffled out of Jordan's way and looked down at her feet. She didn't want to see Rep die, she didn't want to be here for this.
She watched her feet keenly just waiting for the bang of one of Simon's guns. It felt like forever as she listened to Jordan retelling it all. It was like listening to someone drumming off a list of the accused's crimes before being hung. No one could argue Rep's case now, at least certainly not herself.
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 3:17 pm
It was almost comical how ridiculously easy it was to follow Allan's expression as he went from expectant to slightly concerned to flat out-
- "Are you sure, absolutely one-hundred percent sure you encountered a..." The Sun lead did not look at Simon either as he sat back down.
- Disappointment. The food and preperations were promptly forgotten.
Silence. And then-
"Is everything Jordan said true, Rep?" That was Allan using the nickname, his eyes almost hopeful. Too easy to read. Some part of Allan knew that this would happem eventually to the new trainees. He had had high hopes - he always did - and his only rule as a Sun was to always fight for what they believed in. That was what it meant to be a Sun, to trust in themselves, in each other, and work together against all odds, fighting to the end as a Sun Hunter. There were no additional duties, no hidden agendas, required training or long demeaning lectures: the life of a Sun Hunter was short and so they needed to always, always make the best of it.
Every single time he saw someone fall, it was that much harder to push the other onwards. For a Division Leader, trust broken again and again had severe consequences. For a Division Leader, he just had a hard time ever understanding.
"Did this really happen?" Allan saw Simon tense and his mind was already spiralling, face open and naive. It was probably an accident. It was not deliberate. Sun Hunters knew better. "Can you tell us the honest truth?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 4:15 pm
Rep looked up obediently as Allan spoke, and immediately wished he hadn't, the visible disappointment on the man's face was like a dagger twisted in his gut.
He had never had a father in any conventional sense of the word, just a string of his mother's suitors who were more frequent or stuck around longer than others. But like any child he'd dreamed of knowing what it meant to have parents, willing to back you, support you, to wish you the best. A mother figure that cared, a father figure that was just and strong. He'd never had either, but found himself still - even as an adult - far too often seeking both. He'd wanted to come back triumphant and impress Allan, to make him glad to have him on his faction, to tell him what he thought nakama meant.
He thought it meant hunters. Everything that being a hunter was, living with and dying alongside people who were just like you were. But they weren't just like him at all, he wasn't a nakama, whatever the word meant.
It was the meal set up that made his voice crack again as he spoke, simply unable to hold it together.
A meal that could have been, surrounded by lovers, friends and his sun comrades. Closer to a family than he had ever been.
One that would no longer happen.
"I..I'm.", he wrung his hands, "I'm..I'm so sorry." Sorry didn't cut it, it never had, but it had to be said. He was sorry for betraying them, he was sorry for letting his anger get out of control. He was sorry for throwing all the chances back in their face, for not being what they expected him to be.
He was sorry for everything.
Before the island he almost never cried. Even when his mother died, there was nothing but that closed off hollowness and a pride that controlled everything, strangled out feeling. But he couldn't stop it now, a raw frustration with himself, disappointment like he'd never felt before, wracking him. He felt like child again, feebly trying to explain away ignorance and finding no words. All there was was apology.
"I..", he had no idea why even breathing was riddled with shallow little silent sobs as he tried to steel himself. He felt like he was falling apart. "It. It did."
He couldn't look at Jordan. "He's telling the truth."
It was a feeble defence, if it was even a defence at all.
His voice hardly sounded like his own, devoid of the usual arrogance and confidence as he said pitifully "I just wanted you," all of them "to be proud of me."
"But I killed her."
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Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 5:39 pm
Some Hunters were under the impression that Simon and Allan made the perfect duo because of their play on dichotomies. Good cop bad cop. One appealing to their better nature while the other gave the smack-down.
Others simply scoffed: these were Sun Hunters they were talking about, not Death or Life or even Mist. Everything they did they did in earnest. For Simon it was about necessity and efficiency: the turnaround rate of Sun Hunters was by no means small talk. For Allan it was about honesty and integrity. Everything he preached. Nakama. Kokoro. These words did not need to have meaning for anyone, even trainees, to understand what they should have meant.
A calloused hand was placed on Rep's shoulder to steady him. For a little bit, Allan said nothing: no amount of crying or regret would bring back what had already been done: that much he knew from experience. He wanted to say something else, perhaps a passing moral: that mistakes happen, that he could still learn from his mistakes.
The grim and sullen faces of the other trainees weaved more complications. Even if, and that was a big if, assuming that Rep was for some reason allowed to carry on as a trainee despite his giant, gaping mistakes, the hardest part for him was always the nakama. Friends that could have been family. There were so very few Sun Hunters already: boundaries in battle proved always dangerous.
"I think you know who you really owe an apology to." The Sun lead looked up at the trainees: they were only getting edgier. "This isn't my full decision to make, but-"
That moment of silence. Perhaps Allan had forgiven. Perhaps it was going to be okay. There was still an ounce, even the tiniest, of a bare glimpse of hope.
-" This is a mistake that can not be fixed in a day. Noone can change you if you do not want to change." He paused. "I think your friends, your teammates, your nakama really trusted you Rep. We did as well." He nodded to himself and Simon, and furrowed his eyebrows. "This is very serious Rep. I'm going to have to think of a very serious punishment for you, do you understand? You are going to have to directly report to either Simon or me for the next month and sit in the corner every morning."
Pro tip: Allan almost never asked anyone to sit in the corner. While the act was harmless enough, it was also Allan who had asked Lance to stay in Sun division despite his handicap - and well, it was no spoiler where the Mist division assistant had ended up. Some other trainees mysteriously ended up in pods, others just as mysteriously disappeared.
Allan was naive, but Simon was not.
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