No, that wasn’t true. She wasn’t tired. She was physically drained beyond the point of mentally understanding that if she didn’t just sleep she might drop dead. Literally, it wasn’t that bad but with dealing with her cousin showing up, Stibnite had found she seemed to have a constant headache.
What was worse was she felt as if she had let Leucite down at his last meeting. She had been there but never fully engaged. The entire time she felt as if she needed to be somewhere else…
Then she had gotten back home to find out Jay had gotten her hands on some substance again and was sleeping it off. Dear lord she was going to have to put a tracking device on the woman…
So tonight, she was doing the mindless.
Out in the shadows, the huntress was hunting. Her prey...the drug lord she was damn sure Jay had recently found.
---
Sabine did not like this neighborhood. Mainly because it was that part of town that her father had constantly warned her to stay away from. But her Uncle had an apartment nearby, and Sabine was not the type to leave any of her family unprotected. So as much as she patrolled her own neighborhood, she would patrol her uncle’s as well.
The alley was filthy, and Sabine was sure some of the ammonia smell was recent. But still, it kept her off the street proper, which given her uniform, was probably for the best.
“Hey Kitten,” A voice chuckled from a particular shadow. “You look a little lost, maybe I can help you find your way?”
Sabine tensed, watching the taller male figure come out of the shadow. His clothing was better than the area belied, and now Sabine understood why she wasn’t supposed to be in this area. The man gave off the aura of bad things, but he was not Negaverse agent.
“No thank you,” Sabine said, keeping her voice calm and clear. “I’m fine, just passing through.”
“Well maybe you need some travel favors then?” The man said with a grin, motioning to his jacket that he opened up, only to pull out some small ziploc baggies of various pills. “Isn’t much fun without a little booster you know?”
Sabine scowled, shaking her head. “No, really… I’m….”
The chill ran up her back as she felt the chaos aura come into range and draw closer, biting her lip, Sabine wondered if she should warn the man or…
Or leave him to the wolves? That was wrong, even if he was scum…
“You should leave… something very bad is coming…” Sabine hissed, motioning out of the Alley. “Go, NOW!”
“Chill out girly… Ain’t no cops ‘round here for miles…” The man grinned, putting the bag away to instead grab a lighter and cigarette from another pocket. “You really need to relax, kitten…”
---
“That’s right. There aren’t any cops around here.” Stibnite’s voice came as the woman turned the corner. Her eyes were shaded by her hood but the tone in her voice was...twisted. It held an emptiness to it as she listened to her boots click against the cold stone. “They only come to this area when s**t hits the fan…”
Lifting her head up, red eyes looked forward towards the senshi. A flash of memory came over her face and then her eyes narrowed again. She had felt the sense of a senshi the closer she got. However, it didn’t stop Stibnite. This man had to go before he claimed more lives and fed an addiction. If she wanted to protect him...well, that wasn’t an option.
“But this is no place for goody-two-shoes either little girl. The adults have business to attend to.”
---
Sabine felt her shoulders tense up as she recognized the cloaked agent that had turned the corner. Her blood ran cold, and she could feel the fingers of panic starting to creep up to close off her throat. But she shook herself out of it. She’d been training, she wasn’t the defenseless girl she had been before. Mathias had taught her a few more things, had helped her brush up on her form. She could defend herself now. Defend others. Biting her bottom lip, she watched Stibnite approach, putting herself between the man and the Agent.
“I can’t let you hurt him,” She said, feeling her voice fall flatter than she had intended. Fear was still roiling in her gut as much as she wanted to deny it. This woman was cold, and would kill her as soon as look at her and she knew it.
“Whoa, whoa… Cool it… I’m not apart of this…” The dealer said, raising his hands in front of him, one of them holding his still lit cigarette. “I mean ladies… Please… I’m sure we can work this all out…”
Sabine couldn’t see it, but one hand was reaching back into his jacket, and it wasn't’ for a bag of pills. Just as Sabine turned her body sideways to enter a combat stance, she saw the dealer pull the dark matte finished pistol out of his pants and begin to lift it toward Stibnite.
Sabine didn’t even realize she was reacting until she felt the warm, crimson blood soak into her pure white glove. The gun clattered to the ground and she instinctively kicked it away, and it spun and skittered under a nearby dumpster as the dealer sunk down against the wall, gripping his now ruined nose that Sabine had obliterated with a hard, reflexive punch.
“‘At ‘e ‘uck… ‘ou ‘it me…” The dealer cussed out, voice half gurgle as his sinus cavities filled with blood. “‘Uck me…”
Sabine hissed and turned her attention back to Stibinite, unsure of whether or not the woman was now charging because she had been distracted.
---
She had expected the man to retaliate. She had expected the gun and been ready for it.
Stibnite had not expected the senshi to smack the man in the nose and strip the gun. Those actions were not the same this little girl had done last time. “I see….senshi has learned some new tricks.”
Stepping forward, that surprise shifted to a grin. “But you still are no match for me…” With her speed trained in the woods, Stibnite moved toward, her elbow coming out aiming for Sabine’s stomach. “And right now, you need to backup.” She wasn’t out to kill the senshi right then, just put her on the ground. No, she had someone else to deal with first…
“You and I will have a chat after I deal with this scum bag”
---
Sabine had not been expecting the elbow, and it did in fact, drive her back. It did not cause her to fall, but she did clutch at her midsection, trying to get air back into her lungs from where the hit had displaced it all out. All the same, it was more than enough to allow the Agent to do what she had sought to do.
Hissing a bit, Sabine averted her gaze, trying to catch her breath. She did not want to witness her failure. Because deep down she knew she was letting this man die. He had shown his true colors to her when he had pulled the gun. If he had simply run, she would have stood to defend him but…
He had tried to kill someone to save himself.
Granted, Sabine was prepared to do that, but in this case, the man did not know they were deadly… That Stibnite was deadly. She had been an unarmed woman and he’d tried to shoot her.
No… He was evil… and Sabine was letting another evil end that evil. It wasn’t right but…
But at the same time she couldn’t deny that there was justice to it.
Turning her head, she bit her lip, feeling the tears fall down her cheeks as she bore witness to this man’s death, knowing full well it was on her hands. She was letting it happen now.
She had made her choice…
---
Had this been a vampire movie, Stibnite would have had a longer clock that moved around to block the view as she overshadowed her prey. Red eyes would glow as darkness filled them and she reached her hands down to pull the man up by his shirt collar.
One hand held him at her level, the other moved towards his chest. Her eyes lit up and that grin twisted and grew. Her voice was clear, deadly.
“You will never destroy another life again…”
And then her hand sunk into his chest.
The body drooped into a pile before her as her fist closed around the starseed she had just pulled out. The small, delicate item cracked in her hand in her rage.
Turning around, Stibnite turned back around gazed down at the senshi. For several moments she silently watched the female before stepping forward. “He does not deserve your tears.” She spat out in a cold tone stopping a foot or so from her. “He has taken more lives and destroyed more families than anyone you have faced so far. You look at me as filled with chaos...well look…” With her empty hand, Stibnite pointed back to the dead body. “Look at what real darkness is. These civilians you want to protect don’t give a s**t about you. Only how to line their pockets with the money of those they have made dependant upon them.”
In her other hand, Stibnite crushed this starseed.
Opening her hand so the senshi could see the dust fall from her hand. “Everyone preys on someone. No one is free of chaos.”
---
It was as Stibnite spoke that Sabine stood, one hand wiping the tears from her face as she watched her. “The tears aren’t for him,” She said, finally, her body shifting into a defensive stance that was slowing becoming familiar after the many training sessions with Mathias.
“They’re for us.”
She would not explain further, instead, her farthest hand made a come here wave to Stibnite, as if challenging her to come and attack her like she knew she was going to now. They didn’t have to fight, but Sabine knew that Stibnite would not let her walk away from this unscathed.
The tears had been for the fact that Stibnite had felt it necessary to kill someone who wasn’t worth killing in Sabine’s mind. Drain him, chain him up outside a police station and alert the cops, let him suffer the rest of his life in jail for his misdeeds. HE probably had enough hard drugs on him do to that…
Whatever this man had done to her - to make Stibnite feel the need to UTTERLY destroy him… Sabine felt pity for her.
She too had lost someone to someone like this. Someone she’d never met. Her uncle had been removed from her life as well for the whole of it. But this man’s death did not fix any of that.
“Fight me,” She finally said. “I know you want to. The time for talking is over!”
Give her something to do, other than wallow in how she had let evil take the day.
---
“For us…” Stibnite spoke, her eyes growing as she gazed towards the little girl. No, the fact that this same female now rose up and stood up to her where before she acted like a frighten kitten. That in and of itself spoke volumes to Stibnite. “No, maybe for you but not for me. I do not want your tears…”
Something inside Stibnite became tired as she gazed at the face of this woman. She felt the exhaustion fill her body again and all she wanted to was curl up in bed. Heck, she’d even take a clean floor at that moment.
“Go home.” Stibnite spoke, her tone empty as she stepped back away from her fighting stance. “Go home to your warm bed and the family you have. One day even you may see that there is no justice in the way the world is. But right now, I’m not who you want to fight senshi.”
---
Cold, furious anger began to rise up in Sabine. This agent was denying her the catharsis of a fight. She was denying her the right to make amends with herself by rationalizing that if she fought the agent and won, then she would have won over the evil she had let happen. If she lost… well… then obviously she would never have been able to save the man to begin with.
She could almost see the sag in the other woman. This made her even more angry. It was as if she didn’t even see her as a threat!
She charged then, one fist swinging fast and high, the other coming low and slow.
If she would not attack her… Then Sabine would take the first strike.
---
The first blow was a surprise. She had clearly underestimated this senshi as she dipped into the realization that death was right there….at least that was what Stibnite could figure out as she shook off the blow to her shoulder in time to steer the other blow away from her body.
“I gave you the chance to walk away…” Even with the stiff shoulder, Stibnite took the chance to alter the move. Her hands came out, grabbing the low punch as she side stepped the senshi out of the way, jerking the girl into a flip. “But if you want to make a go at it, I will remind you where you stand child….’
Releasing her, Stibnite back stepped away, putting space between them before taking her own stance. Pushing off the ground, the agent moved towards the senshi, leg coming around at a kick.
---
The flip was unexpected, but Sabine was able to fall safely and tuck her head so as to not smack the back of it against the stone of the ground. With a hiss she rolled to her feet in time to face the oncoming kick. She leaned into it, and with a growl, wrapped her arms around the leg and pulled hard, trying to knock the other woman off balance and onto the ground.
Mathias had not shown her what to do after that yet, but the goal she figured, was to get her down so she could stomp on her with her heeled boots at the very least. They would cause some amount of damage she was sure. And that was all she was looking for now. Raw damage.
She didn’t realize it, but she was crying as she fought, her emotions raging out of control as she vented all of her frustration, anger, and pent up dark urges into this fight.
---
Down she went, the ground finding her back with a thud as she looked up at the girl. Crying! She was CRYING! Oh this was rich!
With one leg still caught, Stibnite used her weight to her leg up and kick out with the other leg towards the senshi square in the chest. She knew at this angle she couldn’t do any major damage but she also knew that wasn’t the goal.
The goal was something else. “Let go of me brat.” Stibnite hissed, using what she could to try and roll back and find her feet. When she did, it would not be to direct an attack at the senshi but the move in the opposite direction.
---
The kick was enough to get Sabine to let go of the leg, she had managed a stomp or two at Stibnite but neither found their mark. With a hiss, she snapped a kick at the the retreating form of Stibnite, but the other woman was far faster than Sabine had really expected given the tangle she had just worked her way out of.
Or maybe Sabine’s own energy was sapped by the tears rolling down her cheeks, it was impossible to tell. She was completely emotionally open and raw, and it was all she could do to keep her breathing steady as she just wanted to sink to her knees and sob.
---
The footsteps were just behind her. Stibnite could hear the senshi’s movements. She may have learned some new moves but there was still one advantage to having a lifetime of practice.
Dropping to her own knees, Stibnite slid the rest of the way to her target. Her hand reached under the dumpster and in a flash, she spun back around drawing the gun back towards the senshi.
“ENOUGH!” Stibnite’s voice snapped out. Even on her knees, the gun angled up, that tone could carry. This battle was pointless. This senshi would need to either wake up or die.
She had the choice now.
---
Sabine froze, staring down at Stibnite and looking down at the gun in her hands. She stood over the woman for a good moment, and she bit her lip. “Are you going to shoot me as soon as I turn my back, or will you at least let me get a running start?”
Her voice was shaking, the fear was real. She knew there was no way she’d miss if she shot her at this range, and if she ran… well… She doubted she’d get more than a step or two before the woman pulled the trigger.
There would be no explaining it either… She’d be face down in the alley and that would be the end of it.
“You win…” Sabine hissed. “Just… let me go… Please.”
---
With the gun still in her hand, Stibnite began the process of rising up. Her eyes were trained on the senshi as if weighing all the options. One less senshi. Yes, they would be perfect now would it not? That was their goal after all.
But not like this.
“I make no promises.” Stibnite spoke coldly, rising up and making sure the gun was still trained on the head of the smaller woman. “But you have until the count of ten to get out of my sight before I make up my mind….”
1….
2…
3…
---
Sabine did not need a ten count. She spun, and sprinted for the exit of the alley, running full tilt and sharply turning to the right and running as hard and fast as she could down the main street. She could feel the wind around her as she ran, and she was sure that anyone watching her would wonder how someone was running at Olympic speeds in those boots but she didn’t stop running until she was out of breath and well out of the range of the chaos aura, which she hoped was not following her.
She tried to find a good place to hide and power down, finding a small photo booth to duck into and do just that. Wrapping her jacket around her, she pulled up the hood over her hair and zipped it up, placing her hands into the pockets and hitching up her shoulders to make herself look unapproachable as she moved over to the nearest bus stop.
Curling into the corner, she knew she had about twenty minutes before the next stop. Resting her head on her knees… she completely fell apart, collapsing into sobs as the full force of the night finally hit home.
---
Torvil
