Chapter 55: Buried Deep
9:07 PM July 28th
Ripley
“Uh.” I began, but Mirage placed herself between me and the mechanical figure as her eyes shone red. Midnight growled. “Skeleton… what happened to not getting involved?”
He laughed, a slight chuckle that was too casual as he ignored us and leaned over Diana’s tired figure. The woman herself just stared up, her gun trying to raise. Skeleton regarded the scene. “Relax, relax. I’m not trying to poach your new pup, Middy. Just wanted to know why a cop would come over to my humble town. A Gold at that.”
“This isn’t your town!” Midnight’s arm twisted into a crude barrel, I nearly yelped at seeing the docile body of Elsa raise her voice so loudly, the very sight of her arm shifting startled me even more.
Mr. Skeleton clicked his tongue, not that he even had one in that body. “Right, I have you to thank for this place even existing in such harmony. A harmony delegated by the fact that the Lieutenant Grazhes’… both of them, don’t send their police pigs out here. And now, I have a Gold one sitting free for the taking. When Indra Harmony contacted one of my people, I had to see it for myself. Especially since she’s… well, familiar to my newest interest.”
The hollow cavities of his skull pointed at me, and I felt goosebumps rise all over me. “What are you going to do to her?”
“Oh, that depends on Diana here.” He tapped her shoulder, but Diana shrugged him off.
Even when she was drained of all energy, those silver eyes of her could radiate a sword’s edge. “Skeleton… I heard about you. They have your files locked up.”
“For a good reason.” He playfully raised his hands up. “Why, then I’d have hundreds of you coming in here everyday with grand ambitions of seizing my empire! Metal Heavens and I had a good thing running here, and now you fucked it up, Diana Ulrich.”
She flinched at the name, gnashing her jaw. “It’s Diana Jones.”
“Right.” He chuckled. “Tell me, Ulrich, why shouldn’t I pry out that Gold from your veins?”
She froze, her body locked tight as though she’d been squeezed in his fist. I couldn’t even believe this, some deeper part of me was rising up to scream at her to speak but… but she looked so defeated. “I just…”
“Oh no. I know this wasn’t out of any investigation running here.” He crouched down, regarding her face-to-face. “You came here to save… who was it? Right, Yvette Ingrid. Well, you failed. Killed with your own hands, I gathered, but as it stands — you spoiled this operation here.”
“Skeleton.” I raised my voice. “I need her alive.”
“Interesting.” He said, then sighed. “Well since my new friend here holds you in such high regards, even coming here to save your ass, maybe you’re worth keeping alive. Just, how about this? You owe me a favor now.”
Diana spat at the skull-faced figure, her saliva landing straight into his orbital cavity. “Fuck off. Just leave me alone.”
“Oh, aren’t you a feisty one…” He smirked. “Still, you’re going to owe me that favor whether you like it or not. I’ll make it worth your time!”
Mirage spoke up, her eyes soft again. “Skeleton… just keep us out of this.”
“Oh, of course.” He turned to us. “Actually, Ripley, I wanted to ask you something. You’re looking into the case of your own Implant, right?”
Startled, I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Since you and Missy are planning a Yuzhou heist, look into Ms. Himiko, she was using a Proxy that day in the club. But I wager, her interest in that MAL could bring you closer to what you want.”
What I wanted… Maybe what I did next was stupid, but it was important I figured it out. “How much would it cost to get information on The Dogwhistler?”
I don’t know how, but the way those hollow cavities emoted like they were opening up in shock drove uneasiness into me. “Oh, her? You should have asked sooner.”
So the Dogwhistler identified as a female? That narrowed down half the population.
Mirage raised her tone, a warning in there. “Skeleton…”
“Relax, I know better than to send him straight into the wolf’s mouth! Just… how about five million for her information. As for now, what do you think about that name? Who are the dogs she whistles to?” He stood up, clapping my shoulder as he passed by. “And by the way, I’ll have my men pick up the spine on August 2nd. As for you, Diana, I’ll get Yvette and Indra’s bodies back to their families, even I wouldn’t deny you the right to a funeral.”
His feet rang up the stairs, that body was heavy with each thud, yet it maneuvered around like it weighed nothing.
Diana’s eyes tore into me. “You’re working with him?”
“No, I mean… it’s complicated. I just modify Shardware for him, I need the money.” I didn’t want to get into the specifics of it.
“Of course you do.” She scoffed. “I thought you were different.”
“I need it for my mother.” I met her gaze sharply, my voice gaining an edge. “She’s dying and needs a Silver. That’s all you need to know.”
Diana’s head turned to the side, her body tightly held into itself as even the smallest movements caused her to flinch from her Warp Burns. As Gold, we weren’t easily inflicted with them… that spoke to her sheer output, evidenced by the scorched bodies down below. Had she really killed all those people?
Killed them all… only to end up with nothing out of it.
I eased my breathing, offering her my steel hand. “We’re both in tight shit right now, better to be amicable than enemies. Just because I’m on one side of the law and you’re on the other… we don’t need to fight.”
I then added. “In fact, we don’t talk as much as we should. This whole thing runs deep, and if we’re the only two people digging into it… it’s better to do it together.”
Diana’s hand met mine, and despite it all she struggled her body to stand up. Even defeated, those eyes shined. “Fucking hell… yeah, I know. I- there’s a guy out there named Soul Killer who I’m trying to find, if you figure out anything about them then… let me know.”
Mirage quietly screamed at her. “You’re looking for Soul Killer? Stop.”
“Everyone says that.” Diana met her defiantly. “But why?”
“Because Soul Killer…” Mirage began. “Is not someone who even the worst gangs of Westcrook want to get involved with. Dogwhistler is something, but Soul Killer? If you’re lucky, you’ll only lose your life. It’s suicidal, worse… it’s dangerous to everyone you know and care.”
“Not a lot of people I know… ever fewer who I care about.” Diana said, a bitter and self-pitying laugh breaking out. “Sounds perfect for me.”
She shuffled off us, walking ahead with a half stumble that needed her to grip on the wall seconds later.
“And where exactly are you going now?” Mirage scoffed.
“Home.” There was a weakness in the way she said it.
“You’re going to walk right through this town covered in blood and unable to even walk properly? We didn’t save you just to die all over again, if you’re lucky that is.” Mirage… no, Midnight moved to grab Diana, her crimson gaze staring down like dripping blood. “Right now, you’re fresh meat. If you want to stay alive, then stick with us… and if not me, then Ripley.”
I raised my hand at the notion of my name, trying to make myself seem seen in the conversation, but the dual strike from both of their menacing glares shot me down.
“I can handle…” Diana seethed, she looked like she was about to collapse. “…fine. Where are we going?”
Violet switched to become Twilight’s irises, a twinkle embedded in them. “Madam Hong’s the one I trust most, she’ll get us a room to spend a few hours in to recover. Get some food, once I know you have enough Warp Energy in you to survive a fight, I’ll let you go.”
Diana begrudgingly lowered her head. “I can accept those terms.”
“Alright then gorgeous!” Twilight smiled, taking the lead with a pump of her fists. “Follow me.”
Diana stared down at the switching personas dumbstruck, I offered her a shoulder for support as well as a simple explanation. “Multiple personalities… it’s a Psyche thing.”
“Uh huh…” She said in a drawn out fashion. “Do you… do you trust her?”
It took me a second to answer, but staring down Twilight’s bright smile was all I needed. “Yeah, I trust them.”
“I don’t know if that’s enough for me…” Diana said in a low voice. “But I don’t have anything else.”
“That’s… I know where you’re at, Diana.” I supported her as we made our way on the streets of Little Requiem, we got our fair share of stares but thankfully Twilight did the best at redirecting their focus onto her as she pranced around like she owned the place.
“I… I guess you do, because of S////?” She said quietly.
I didn’t know how to answer that, my memories of that night grew hazier each day. I could hardly even remember anything attached to that name now, just blank faces and even more false images of a person I never really knew. “Not exactly, because of what’s happened to my parents.”
“Shit. They fuck you up too?” Diana said with a bitter laugh. “Maybe I should correct that, did one of them fuck you up?”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“No… it was me who fucked up their lives.” That thought came clearly through me. “I tried to be more than I was, made stupid decisions. Cost my dad his job, and forced my mom into an even worse job back at that club. We lost everything, money and reputation, and throughout it all I only ever had them… except…”
“Except that didn’t stop things from getting worse. Long story short, my dad knew secret corpo information from when he was a high-ranker in SynTec’s Energy Division, so they sent a cop to frame him for being violent on drugs and shot him down. My mom took the brunt of money-making after that, sending her down a spiral of a terrible job doing terrible things because her degree was delegitimatized. Using a cheap Iron BUG didn’t make things better, this arm’s a little too powerful for that and it corrupted her. Warp Poisoning of the Silver-Grade.”
“Shit man, sorry.” Diana seemed to weigh a little less as she heard it all. “That explains something… you probably got it worse than I did.”
We’d just reached that same little bistro I had entered the undertown through, except this time that short statured woman was leading Twilight and us upwards. Diana took hold of the stair’s railing tight. “Fuck it, I was born in a Cradle.”
“Really?” My eyes opened. “My grandfather too, from my dad’s side. From what I remember about my father’s relationship with the old man, they do fucked up things in there.”
“Institutionalization.” Diana sighed. “Earliest memories of the place is the fucking stench, like bleach but sharper. Everything was spick-and-span clean as Haithama’s nutsack. Had to be, and it was us who cleaned it. We worked, trained our bodies and minds in that facility day and night from the moment we were born as… perfect human beings — to be a product to those corporate douches whose Implants have made them infertile. In a way, I’m glad they plugged us with the genes for that kind of labor.”
“Was it a military or societal Cradle?” I asked.
“A Mazhyr Luxury Cradle.” Diana grit her teeth, I was unsure if it was because of the physical strain or the mental one. “Maybe that’s the only good thing about that place, instead of being pawned off to a company’s private security, I was raised to be a steward of some rich family. Crammed five hundred years of history in my childhood, not to mention science, math, economics, psychology… self-defense was the only thing I was good at… but, I wasn’t alone.”
“Someone you still know?” I propped her a little better, my legs could take the weight.
It came crashing down in her voice as it broke. “Yvette. Fuck, she- there was a time when I was saving her from bullies. She wasn’t anything too special in the cradle, that still made her above average compared to everyone else. God she- you know, she used to hold herself back all the time, pretend she was dumber than she really was. To fit in. Playing the long-con was what she called it. Didn’t stop her from growing an attitude that pushed back any favors she got from our superiors.”
I felt wetness trail down the metal of my arm. “She sounds like a lovely friend…”
“She is.” Diana’s throat quivered. “She… fuck, she always had my back. She saved me. And I- I let her down… I- I- kil-“
“Hey, hey…” I interrupted her. “Don’t. It’s… I know exactly what you’re going through, Diana. There are times where I just want to throw myself down that spiral staircase of trauma, but it wasn’t your fault. It was Indra Harmony’s, whoever put her up to that, that’s whose fault it is.”
“Rorsche…” Diana said to herself. “Kendrick Rorsche… she, it might not have been him who ordered Indra to do that. But he drove her there. I’ll make him pay.”
“You will.” I consoled her, as Madam Hong opened up a room with two beds and a divider spaced between them. “Just take some time off right now, you need to recover.”
“Yeah… I will and then I’ll… I’ll kill that motherfucker.” Diana’s eyes radiated an intense fury behind her tears, the silver in them trickled under a menacing cascade of lightning.
“I know you will.” I gave a reassuring smile to her, letting her down gently on a couch while Twilight hopped onto one of the beds. I sat down next to Diana, feeling heavy in a sense that I never really did before, I quickly swapped to my Analyze Function so that I could navigate this upcoming conversation better. “Do you… want to talk more?”
She studied me for a few moments, staring down at the blood on her hands. “I- yeah, actually. I don’t feel quite ready to sleep or eat or… anything, I-“
“How was your adoption?” I hoped that would be a simple enough question.
“The process is stupid.” She let out a hollow chuckle, her mind clearly distancing itself from reality. “When you turn twelve, they line you up in front of a panel of judges, like a talent show except these guys are a bunch of high-ranking execs of the Cradle. You’re supposed to show off what you can do, they ask you about your scores, sometimes quiz you. Then that video gets sent off to a bunch of sponsors and they start an auction for you. At thirteen, I was bought out for around… two million?”
My eyes stared wide at her. “Damn.”
“I was… pretty smart and physical, not to mention my hair and eyes. Yvette cried the day my offer was finalized, begging me not to go. I wish I didn’t have to, but at the same time I would get… a life. Outside of plastic forks and knives, fitness training, and standardized examinations. I believe she got out at fifteen, for I think two-hundred-thousand? Her parents were Shard Op’s who couldn’t have children. She got lucky… sixteen’s the cutoff before transfer you to a military school.”
“So that how you ended up in Westcrook?” I asked.
“It took longer than that. A man named Yorrick Jones adopted me. A geneticist who engineered a startup that made good developments in crop growth, something to do with environmental engineering. It got bought out by Imperium for a hefty sum and he wanted a simple life after that, his wife died a few years before he adopted me and… he said he couldn’t imagine a life with a different woman. He was lovely, an adoring father who raised me well.”
Her eyes twinkled behind the dried tears. “I grew up far north, near where the Canadian borders used to be in New Washington. Whole place is a nature reserve owned by the rich, some had woodland mansions but me and my dad just stayed in a quiet cabin. It was awkward at first, meeting that old man and knowing he was who I had to call my father but… we clicked. He said he knew the moment he laid eyes on me that I was meant to be his daughter, solely because my name was Diana. His favorite Old World movie is called Indiana Jones. And that’s how Diana Jones came to be.”
I smiled at her, she seemed to have momentarily drifted off to another more peaceful time of her past, but then she hardened and straightened herself on the couch. “Then there’s the story of… Diana Ulrich. You see, my genetic material… turns out the sperm used in my making came from a big shark in NeoCore, Brian Ulrich. I don’t know why or when, but he was transferred to New California and began a political career here, and it was around the time I was seventeen that he made his presence known to me by… well, one day my dad…. My real one had tears across his face. I’d never seen him like that unless he spoke of his wife.
“He said something was wrong, and that he had no choice in the matter. That night, there was a car waiting for me and he told me to get in. I did, and that was where I met Brian Ulrich, my biological source. He didn’t even bother saying it to me with his mouth, just showed me a contract of a transfership that showed I would be in his care from then on. Said ‘Is there anything that needs clarifying’ like I understood a word of what was happening.” Diana said every word with hatefulness.
“He… kidnapped you?” I couldn’t believe a word of what I was hearing.
“Basically, for the sheer fact that he thought being known as a single father would give him just the edge to win the election four years ago. I went from living by hunting to a penthouse where I was shackled with the expectations of becoming some corporate workhorse for NeoCore. It was worse than hell, for two years he pretended like fancy cars or food from the hands of his personal chefs would make up for stealing me away. No matter what I did, he refused to let me meet my father, Brian brushed it off by saying I was his new family and that it’s the way things always should have been. So I ran away one day, I took off to the streets and never looked back.”
“Shit, and here I thought I had it rough.” I blew air from my mouth, meeting her eyes with genuine sympathy.
“You did, in a way that was different from mine. I was homeless for a month, each day strangers showed me just how cruel they could be. It was a good thing I knew how to throw a punch, and I got lucky with stealing a gun off somebody, and a knife… it was always meant as an empty threat and it worked well enough to keep the Scrappers away. I was ready to live my life that way, until one day it was just blind luck that Yvette walked by.”
She took a deep gulp, tears building in her eyes. “Founders, she still brings it up. Diana 'Silvereye' was caught begging on the streets while she was off to buy a new high-end designer bag. I’ll never forget the kindness of her parents, when they let me stay with her… or her, when she barged me into the police recruitment center while they were in the middle of training their new cadets.”
“Let me guess, you aced those exams as well?” I raised my eyebrow at her.
“I…” She sheepishly shrunk. “Just the shooting range. But I did well enough that by the time our training was done, I was indoctrinated as a Second-Rank Officer.”
Ah, so she was a gunner. “I made poor choices with my police friends.”
She seemed to take offense to that. “What does that mean?”
“Means you’ll probably be a Special Investigator by the time I even open up my own Shard Op’ place…” I sarcastically added. “Please don’t shut it down.”
“As long as it’s legitamite…” She verbally tossed my woes aside.
I laughed, glad to see her in a better mood. “Well, I guess it’s decided. Our childhoods sucked. At least we have our Golds now, maybe karma exists after all.”
“Maybe.” She took in a deep breath, staring at her feet. “Thank you, Ripley… today’s sucked. I think I’m… going to take a shower.”
Twilight spoke up, muffled in a blanket. “Hong’s got a spare change of clothes in the closet, didn’t know your sizes so I just got them all oversized!”
Diana nodded, finding the strength to walk herself to the bathroom by herself. I let out a sigh that I’d been holding in for too long, today had been stressful. Twilight called out, sitting up in the bed so that the blanket flew over the bed. “Meanie, you were supposed to get in bed with me, not flirt with her!”
“I wasn’t…” I ruffled my hair tight in exasperation, but an idea came to me. “What’s the matter, jealous?”
“Oh you’re playing that game with me?” Twilight teased. “Yeah, a tiny bit, now come here and pick out a movie!”
“Now?” This felt a little inappropriate.
“Elsa’s looking through something right now. I don’t get this opportunity every day!” She patted the pillow next to her, I shook my head and decided that I might as well indulge her.
———
Diana
The hot water flashed over me, the warmth drizzling down my back and arms to soak the blood off my hands. I stared at them, memories returning one after the other, placing them on Yvette’s shoulders and-
The memory stopped, as though it had been choked out of its breath by some deeper mental hand I fastened over it. I was aware of the moment, could even scan it piece by piece but it was like the weight of the whole memory itself had been fractured.
I understood why, immediately. I brought up my Neuroframe settings, a whole slew of various police mandated protocols — minor and major — installed on it. Amidst the Frequency Blockers, Sigil Encrypters, Police-Issued DataShields… one stood out in particular.
The Post-Traumatic Stress Negator.
Warning: Turning off the PTSN is not recommended unless you have been cleared under Psychiatric Practitioners. Are you sure you want to switch the protocol off?
That message gripped me. Unable to tear my gaze off it, I questioned if what I was doing was stupidity, or grieving. Yvette had died, she was gone, yet all I felt in my chest was a simple understanding of that fact. The intricacies of the PTSN failed me, but I was aware it was some branch off the Personality Matrices employed by SynTec.
The memory of the day I’d gotten my Neuroframe was difficult to remember, but I recalled some days prior during my psychiatric evaluation. I was deemed an exceptional cadet in all forms, but the one red mark on my sheet was that I was deemed to be… unhealthy mentally. The settings of my PTSN was at 70% ever since I’d joined.
Today, I turned it down to 0.
The burst of emotions hit all at once, like a balloon of grief had popped within my chest. The orchestra of falling bodies like a drum-march from hell hammering down on my skull, it wasn’t just Yvette. That MAL, I saw it slaughter Lieutenant Grazhe, rip his face apart… mutilate a woman’s body from the inside, turn entire humans into weapons.
Then Tonguelasher, who was just a kid with a tough life that only found care in someone just as messed up as he was.
Then those grunts from Crimson Souls, it was a do-or-die situation, but when had I stopped even trying to save lives? I did, by killing them… but that hadn’t been who I used to be.
Then Muramasa, and Metal Heavens…
And Indra. Her desperation led her to idiocy, and everything was fed by that bastard, Rorsche.
And Yvette. Who… I- I-
Puke splattered on the floor of the shower, it drained away as a deep spiral, mimicking my own thoughts as they sunk deeper into the abyss. I felt my hands snap bones, stop hearts, shatter metal like it had been nothing. I’d understood that I’d taken necessary lives, yet each time it became a lighter burden to carry.
The numbers piled on, bodies falling one after the other for the sake of my job, of my own calling for greatness.
Yvette… it had been a cold January. The kind experienced due to the MALswarm’s effect on the weather, it was brutal, harsh didn’t begin to explain it. Even the warm water of this shower raining down on me failed to quench the chill in my bones.
But her voice had, she’d been wearing a black coat that could have fed me for a month at that time. It took her less than a second to take it off her and wrap it over my dirty body, as she asked again and again… ‘Is that you, Diana? I’d know those silver eyes from anywhere.’
My mouth’s bitterness was replaced by a sharp saltiness, what was wrong with me? She didn’t know how tough that month had been, how terrible the last two years were… but that simple hug from her as she wrapped me in her jacket had saved me.
She’d saved me.
And now she was gone.
It was all my fault.