Title: At Freedom's Expense
Series: Guilty Gear
Rating: 13+
Canon notes: Take place some time after the events in GGXX.
Chapter 1: Narrow Streets of Cobblestone
Circa: 2183, March
As thunder continued to boom in the sky, two travelers in trench coats
waded through the rain on the sidewalk. The smaller of the two shuddered
at the noise, yet continued to press on with her companion.
The streets they walked on were the first of the cities to be rebuilt
after the end of the Crusades. Cobblestone covered the streets, very
much like many European cities before the wars, giving it the same
archaic and humble look the residential areas of Paris once had.
The taller of the two looked to the houses lining the streets and
scanned the addresses. As with the streets, the style of the housing
hadn't changed. In fact, if one was old enough, it would look no
different than if it were in the twentieth century. The man figured the
architects still desired days they were never born to and vainly
attempted a reproduction of the pre-Crusades style. Though the rain had
made seeing a bit hard, he could still make out the numbers of each
individual home.
"Are we almost there?" the girl asked, trying to keep up.
"Just about," the man replied, "the Boy Scout doesn't like moving around
a lot, so his address should be the same as it's been for a while."
The girl nodded and increased her pace to keep up with her companion as
the rain hit her hood harder. The light from the magic powered street
lamps was flickering, much to her dismay, for she did not have the
enhanced eyesight of her guide.
"I'm wondering... you don't like him at all, so why are you taking me to
him?" she asked as they ran beneath an alcove to where their quarry lived.
"Because," the man said, pulling back his own hood to let his dark brown
ponytail hang over his back, "despite the beef we got with each other,
he's one of the few people I know that can be trusted."
She said nothing as she followed him up the stairs. The rain was still
not letting up and the continuous crack of thunder was putting her ill
at ease.
"But, how do you trust him?"
The man smirked when he was about to knock on the door. "Because he
hates me."
---
With a sign, Ky Kiske lit another candle in his modestly decorated home.
The power had been out for well over an hour and it didn't look like it
was coming on any time soon, so he brought out some old candles the
previous tenant had kept for such an emergency.
Electrical power was handled in a manner resembling the old electrical
circuits from the time before Magic was discovered. The only major
difference being the source of the electricity itself. Using electricity
from its purest source, the elements, had provided it as much more
efficient than burning ridiculous amounts of coal,
oil, and so forth. However, not even the advent of magic had prevented
the occasional black-out whenever a storm broke out.
Blowing out the match, he slowly eased himself into the chair at his
desk and took a brief glance over the reports from the Central IPF
office in London. Not taking his eyes off the report, he slowly sipped
some tea while skimming over the words.
Putting the cup back on the table gently, his eyes stopped at a report
coming from the offices near Tuubingen, Germany. Apparently, there had
been an airship, falling through the sky and into the forests south of
the city. There appeared to be no survivors to be found and what
remained of the airship was being identified to find a match.
He closed his eyes, trying to remember if there were any Zepp craft
reported in that area. From past reports, they often gathered in the
area near the old U.S.S.R. border, since many of the citizens of Zepp
were of Russian descent.
Then again, it could have been air pirates. President Gabriel had
informed him, through Potemkin, that it was a common occurrence for Zepp
to hunt down such people since their technology was a primary target for
looters. It was a little source of information he decided to keep to
himself since the Chief of Police would not be happy if he were to
discover that Ky had been in contact with the president of Zepp.
A knock on his door brought him out of his reprieve. Standing up, he
took on the candle ladles and wondered who would be coming to his house
at this time of night, in the middle of a storm no less.
"Hello?" he said through the door.
"Hey, Boy Scout. Open up, it's me," a gruff and boorish voice said on
the other side.
Ky frowned and opened the door. "Might I inquire as to why you're here,
Sol?"
"No time for small-talk, Jr. We got a problem," Sol grumbled, pushing
himself inside past Ky.
Ky stepped in front of Sol, preventing any further movement from the
bounty hunter and drawing a scowl from him.
"Not only is your etiquette lacking, Sol, your grammar leaves much to be
desired as well," Ky stated boldly, "who is this 'we' you're talking
about when I see only you?"
Ky held his ground, despite Sol's deep-throated growl and the vicious
grip on his collar. "By 'we', Jr.," he snorted with derision in his
tone, "I mean all of us. You, me, and the kid here."
Blinking, Ky looked over Sol's shoulder to see a young woman, covered
with a heavy trench coat and hood to hide her face. The shadows on her
hood prevented him from seeing the upper portion of her head.
"And you are?" Ky asked curtly as he forcefully removed himself from
Sol's grip.
The girl looked to Sol, as though seeking his approval. Ky wondered what
it meant as Sol nodded and the girl pulled back her hood to let loose a
stream of azure colored hair cascading around her pale face and apparent
reddish-bronze eyes.
"Dizzy?" he said in surprise.
The thought-dead Gear/human Hybrid nodded once. There was a bandage
around her forehead and various patches of dirt on her cheeks gave the
impression of hard times. He now had to admit whatever Sol had to say
was worth listening to as he ushered her in and closed the door.
"So..." Ky replied, somewhat humbled at the revelation, "what was this
you wanted to speak to me about?"
Sol nodded. "Like I said, a big problem. But first, I need to make a
search..."
"Search for what?" Ky asked as he followed Sol into his living room.
"Bugs, hidden cameras, mikes, that sort of thing." He took a quick scan
of the room before turning back to Dizzy.
"You hear anything?"
The Gear stepped passed Ky slowly before walking into the living room.
Her hand raised and pointed at his grandfather clock. "I can hear one in
there," she whispered.
Opening the door, the bounty hunter reached in for a moment, and pulled
out what appeared to be a small transceiver and promptly crushed it with
his hand.
Sol turned to Dizzy. "Did you find any others?"
The hybrid shook her head. "I would have heard the signals if there were."
Sol smirked, took Ky's hand, and dumped the remains of the hidden
hearing device in it. "You're getting sloppy, kid. Justice would have
won against you guys if I hadn't kept on finding these things for you."
Frowning back at Sol, Ky grumbled, "Yes, but that doesn't explain who
put that there?"
Dizzy spoke up timidly, "The Bureau."
Turning to Dizzy, a single frightening possibility entered his mind.
"The Post War Administration Bureau?"
"Yep," Sol muttered as he proceeded to blow out all the candles in the
adjacent rooms.
"Sol what's the meaning of this? I don't under..."
"Just sit down and shut the hell up! I said I'd explain it to you,
didn't I?" Sol snarled as he blew out the last candle.
Feeling his way through the dark, Ky would have placed himself in his
chair had Sol grabbed him by the collar once more and shoved him onto
the sofa. He sent a poisonous glare towards Sol as he took Ky's chair, a
cigarette, and lighter from his pocket before the Bounty Hunter began.
"Ok... first things first... do you know how long the Bureau has been
around?" he said as he placed the 'cancer stick' in his mouth and lit it.
"Roughly a decade, hasn't it?" he said with another disapproving frown
at Sol.
"Wrong. They've been around since before the Crusades, only under a
different name."
"But..."
"Shut up, I'm not done yet. Eventually, Justice got whacked and every
thing's all hunky dory. Or at least, that's what they want people to
think. They can start to work on more important things."
"I assume you mean the Robotic versions of me?"
"Good. There may be hope for you after all. Anyway, you and I know for a
fact that those Robo Kys we've seen are just a sampling for something
larger. Now, because of them, the Jellyfish pirates are most likely
dead. She was the only one I found."
Ky held back a gasped and turned to the outline of Dizzy, looking down
in shame.
"What happened?"
After a sniff, Dizzy replied quietly. "We were planning to land for some
supplies in the city. However, when we entered German airspace, we were
suddenly boarded and surrounded by hundreds of those robots."
Ky could tell that she was beginning to cry as she continued, "I tried
to stop them... tried to get the others to the escape pods... but before
what any of us knew, they had blown the engines and opened fire from
other ships. Johnny... he was able to get me to a lifeboat and he was
going to find May... but then, the ship blew up... and... and..." she
could talk no more as she covered her face with her hands and sobbed.
Turning back to Sol, Ky asked, "but why the Jellyfish pirates?"
Sol shrugged as he took another drag. "Either because the Pirates had
some kind of information on them or they resisted. Anyway, I heard the
crash and found her there. Spent the last few days healing her wounds
and brought her here."
"But why me?"
"I know I can trust you to take care of her, you punk!"
Ky took a long minute to look at Sol's outline and then back to Dizzy's.
Her sobbing had calmed by now and she was listening in,
waiting for something.
With a sigh, Ky then whispered, "Very well. I'll take care of her for as
long as I can. But you know something, Sol?"
"Hm?"
"You assume a lot. I always hated you for that."
Even in the darkness, Ky could tell Sol was smirking. "No, you hated me
because I was always right when it came to you."
Ky held back a growl of his own and continued, "So then. What shall be
done about the PWAB? And what about Dizzy? If they know she survived,
then you could have led them here."
"Maybe. In that case, I need you to go about your business and be
prepared to high tail it out of town with her at the first sign of
trouble. They don't take any chances and will eliminate you if needs be.
And before you deny it, trust me, they have ways. They are a lot more
dangerous than you think."
As Sol stood up and headed for the door, Ky followed suit. "And what
about you? You planning on hiding from them?"
To his and Dizzy's surprise, Sol started chuckling.
"Kid... I've been around longer than you'll ever know... believe me.
These guys may be dangerous, but they're not invincible. I got plans of
my own to take care of. In the meantime, be a good boy and baby sit for me."
Ky was about to protest Sol's answer when the door shut and the man left
mid the cover of a thunder boom. With a frown, Ky locked the door,
resisting the temptation to grab the Thunder Seal and demand a duel. His
inability to defeat the bounty hunter be damned, he would continue to
fight Sol until he could fight no more.
"You must really hate him," Dizzy said timidly from behind.
Turning around, he noticed her outline sitting against the wall in a
curled up position.
"Yes... I do. He's mocked everything I've believed in or stood for.
Every time we meet he acts as though I was never there." he said with a
frown.
The half gear looked down in concentration, then nodded, coming to a
conclusion. "I can see why he trusts you so much."
Ky was surprised to hear such a remark. "Sol?"
She nodded, as though it was common knowledge.
"How do you figure?" he asked.
"Well, you seem so determine to outdo him, something like this seems a
step closer to achieving that."
He turned back to the door, wondering if he could ever begin to
understand Sol, irritating as the Bounty Hunter was.
The policeman took a deep breath and leaned against the wall. Any more
agonizing over Sol's superiority was going to give him a premature heart
attack. Besides, he had a guest to attend to. She still looked at him
like a child waiting for an adult to clarify.
It was a struggle. They very sight of her brought back images of
Justice, herself. Through the metal of her mask, Ky remembered the anger
and hatred that empowered her.
It was almost instinct for him to reach for the Thunder Seal whenever
the word or even subject of Gears was breached. Every day of his life,
he had heard the same thing.
Gears were evil.
Gears were bad.
Gears hate humans.
Gears kill humans.
That was practically a chant the human race cried while the Crusades
raged onward. The Gears replaced the Devil and Hell as the most feared
thing in the human consciousness. Parents would even warn their children
that the Gears would get them if they didn't eat their vegetables,
cleaned their room, and so on. The hatred with Gears became an obsession
to the human race. He was no exception.
With what little light he had the in the room, he could see her look up
to him. He knew she was scared of him still. He didn't want to say it,
but he was probably more scared of her than she was of him. He had seen
her display her nearly uncontrollable power and the destructive results.
On her side of things, she could probably smell the blood of the
countless Gears he had slain in the name of Humanity. Though with the
body and mind of a twenty-one year adult, she still had the child-like
instinct of a four-year-old child. Scared and frightened of the things
beyond her control and without the experience of people his own age.
Noticing that their eyes had locked for more than a minute he turned
away and said, "If you'd like, you can use my bed."
She gasped and stood up. "Oh, but I couldn't."
He held up a hand to silence her. "Please. Though unexpected, you are
still my guest."
The lights then flickered on and he blinked upon realizing that
underneath the coat, her uniform from the Pirates was dirty and torn.
With parts of her body he could see, was muddy and not well kept. It
appeared that the past week had been harder on her than he expected.
Turning to the bathroom, he said, "I'll draw a bath for you. There'll be
a change of clothes for you when you're done."
He turned back to her and expected her to protest. However, seeing the
look in his eyes silenced her and she nodded once more.
"Mr. Kiske..."
He was stepping into the bathroom when he heard her call him.
"Yes?"
She wiped away the drying tears and smiled a bit. "Thank you."
He wanted to smile back and tell her to think nothing of it. However,
the previous years of unintentional hatred for Gears only got a nod out
of him. He didn't turn back to her as he stepped inside the bathroom and
activated the faucet.
Within seconds, the tub was beginning to fill and as he leaned over the
edge to plug the hole, he noticed his Lanchester silver cross,
laced with gold, hanging over the water.
It was more than just a symbol of his faith. It represented the life he
had chosen. Just glancing at that small item caused his voice to recite
an oft-quoted scripture to settle disputes amongst the Holy Order when
it was still in existence.
"And I say unto you," he whispered to himself, "the Second Commandment
is like unto the First: Thou Shalt Love thy Neighbor as thyself. Do this
and thou shalt live."
He sighed internally and asked rhetorically, "And who is my neighbor?"
An answer wasn't needed as he stopped the water flowing, stood up,
and walked out of the bathroom.
End of chapter one
Brief notes:
1. Though this has been on FF.net for a while, I was hoping that maybe
I could get some assistance with this on the ML, mainly because the first
couple of chapters need some serious help and, of course, hopefully bring a bit
of variety to the list. I also didn't get any prereaders for this
until the fourth chapter, but because of their help, I've learned how
to proofread myself somewhat. But it never hurts to have another pair
of eyes, ya know?
2. All things Guilty Gear belongs to Daisuke Ishiwatari and Arc
Systems. (I think, since there's a chance that it may have been
absorbed by another company.)