forum Talk About Double Trouble

Started December 13, 2019 by Deleted user

tune

Edit topic

Zenith spends the rest of the day arguing with Katsumi over whether it is ethical for him to have a girlfriend. Finally, at the end of the day, he goes to bed, laying down. Right as he's about to go to sleep, a message pops up on his phone.

'Hey Zig-Zag, you're going to want to see this'

Below is a link that shows a hit. Not entirely sure where this is going, Zenith clicks on it.

'Target: Isabelle Mary Smith.
Alias: Evelyn Rose Dimon'

Zenith sucks in a breath. Oh, f *ck. This isn't good.

He sends Crystal a quick 'Thank you', and asks her to delete the job from the site, or at least not give it to anyone.

Now time for the big question: does he tell Evelyn?

Crystal messages him back. 'I can't get it down. I think the government put it up.'

Zenith groans, putting his head in his hands. This is not good.

He opens the dating app, going to the chat. He spends a good half-hour debating whether or not he should message her.

In the end, he closes the app, and starts surveying his weapons.

She won't get hurt. Not if he can help it.

(BTW if she gets a job for Zenith his name will be under 'Theta')

(Got it) Suddenly she got a text on a job, and looked over the details. She shrugs as she leaves, and went to go get her weapons and sneak off. She needed the cash miserably.

Zenith starts pacing his room as he studies what he has to work with. He decides against the missile launcher; it's too flashy. He settles on his katana and a few small guns. He slips out of the building, so quiet you'd never know he was there. He's no more than a dark shadow on the ground. Zenith glances up at the moon as he starts to make his way to the address he had Crystal hack- Evelyn's address. He will keep her safe.

And if he stops on the street that the two of them met for a moment longer than he should, well, no one has to know.

She walked RIGHT PAST Zenith on the way to his house. "Oh Theta, my what a pretty number is on your head, now it'll be on a stake-man now I want steak. I'm hungry…I'll get food once I kill this emo." She talked to herself a lot. People left her alone when she did that.

Zenith freezes in place. He- there's no way. He told her, and she way okay with it! He told her that he was-

But what if she knew the whole time? What if she was just pretending to care? What if she was getting him to lower his guard so she could take him down?

Zenith shakes his head. No, there's got to be a logical explanation for this! Evelyn wouldn't-

The teen sucks in a breath, desperately trying to ignore the hurt and anger that's beginning to grow in the back of his mind. There's got to be an explanation for this!

His brain reminds him that there is a logical explanation, he just doesn't like it.

"Shut the f*ck up." Zenith whispers to himself.

He goes back to the spot that they first saw each other, and sits down on the ground where Evelyn was playing her music. Wordlessly, he draws his katana.

She'll recognize the magical aura. She'll be able to find him. And when she shows up, Zenith will get his answers, one way or another.

The teen closes his eyes. No matter what goes down, he'll come out on top. He's been training since he was three.

It's just a pity he didn't see her motives until it was too late.

He takes a moment. When it comes down to it, how will he make the final blow? How will he-

It hits him like a truck that he doesn't want to. He doesn't want to hurt her. He doesn't want her dead. Even if this was all a facade to get to him, he's not going to be able to make that final strike.

He clenches his katana. One way or another.

She noticed it's Zeniths house. "HEY it's my boyfriend's hou-waaaaaait just a damn MINUTE!" She took out her phone and looked over the details, and walked right back to what she called HER corner. Under the streetlight. She always looked beautiful in the moonlight. Graceful, and wild, like a creature of the land. And so she stood right in front of Zenith, not even noticing, angrily yelling into the phone. "I DON'T CARE IF HE'S WORTH HALF A BILLION! HE'S MY BOYFRIEND! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NO KILLING FRIENDS AND FAMILY RULE! Look when I signed up for this I made that DAMN CLEAR ON MY CONTRACT! SO WHAT IF HE'S DANGEROUS! MY SISTER IS A SATANIST AND SHE'S ALIVE! Easy KILL OH I'LL SHOW YOU-shit he hung up." She sighed as she paced in the street not seeing Zenith there. "HOW COULD THEY! TRICKING ME LIKE THAT! I'm not THAT gullible!"

Zenith gets to his feet, hand still wrapped around the hilt of his katana. He quietly wonders if this is a facade, too. Had she known that he figured her out? Was this all a dramatic show to earn his trust back? He realizes his hands are shaking, quivering around his weapon. No, he doesn't need to feel like this! He's Zenith Zander Zagami. He is an instrument of war. No one, and he means no one, will bring him down like this. His healing factor combined with his fighting skills makes him untouchable.

Katana still unsheathed, he steps under the glow of the streetlamp. "You took a hit on me." Despite his best efforts, his voice quivers. He grits his teeth. He's not this weak, damn it! He was made for violence, made to kill, born to die. He isn't scared, he isn't sad.

But then why does he feel like he's dying inside?

Zenith quickly attempts to cover up the pain on his face, but by then, it's too late. She's already seen.

She turns. "Oh! Zenith!" She smiles then hears him, and notices the pain. The sorrow. She didn't even care about the fearless facade of murder he put on. He couldn't kill her if he tried. So she sat right back on her corner. "Yeah…I know. But when you're 3 months behind on rent and someone hands you and file that's worth half a billion, then you kinda forget to read the name of who it is. Sorry love. I'm gonna take this up with my boss tomorrow,don't you worry none." She seemed so relaxed and laid back. Didn't even care about the fire of rage in his eyes.

The teen ignores the way his hands tremble, slick with sweat. He ignores the way his breathing quickens and his heart pounds. He doesn't know what to say, what to feel, what to think. He closes his eyes for a moment, collecting himself.

He's fine, he's okay.

He's always okay.

Shakily, he opens his eyes, his grip on his katana tightening. "You didn't read the name?" He practically winces at the desperation in his tone, how badly he wants to believe her, how badly he wants it to be a mistake.

The voice in the back of his head reminds him that he's not allowed to fail. He's not allowed to give in. He refuses to give in. He is Zenith. His name is legendary in the underground market. He is the one people come to when the target is impossible to catch, he is the one they come to when there is no room for error, he has hundreds of kills under his belt, he is-

Zenith, the hero of the underground, the experiment, sheathes his blade, falling to his knees. He ignores the tears that prick at his eyes.

"If this is all a facade, if this was all just to get to me, if this is all a lie, get it over with. Best spot to strike a killing blow against me would be at the atlas, where the spine meets the skull. If this was all fake, just- just get it over with."

She looks at him with genuine confusion. "What-were you sent to kill me? Ha!" She laughs. "The weak motherfuckers. Sending two lovers to kill eachother…" She sighed and walked over, and grabbed his head, and slowly lowered it into his lap, basically forcing him to lay down and get comfy. If he didn't, she could break his neck. She was surprisingly super strong. But that also had backstory to it. "Fake? No no no. I love you." She stated that simply as a fact. "I would-seriously. I have 4 different mental diseases and the attention span of a kid in a candy factory." She pet his head softly.

Zenith freezes, but allows himself to be moved. "I wasn't sent to kill you. I found a hit on you- anyone could take the job, it was one of the free-for-all ones, winner gets the prize- so I came to try to protect you." His voice and movements are stiff. He sounds almost robotic. "I was worried about you."

Suddenly, he notices that something's off. Something here is wrong-

It all falls into place when he spots the sniper on the roof.

"They didn't really want us to kill each other." He realizes in dawning horror. "They were setting it up to take both of us down at once."

The sniper, unaware that Zenith has noticed him, ducks behind the scope, lining up his shot.

The teen jolts himself out of his position, throwing Evelyn to the side with his movement as he pulls out one of his pistols. He lines up his own shot, and-

And is shot directly through the heart.

The teen goes stiff for a moment, the world a haze before him. Then the gun leaves his grasp, clattering to the ground.

Zenith goes limp, his body crumpling downward. He hits the pavement, a sickening 'crack' resounding outwards.

His breathing picks up for a moment, and then his vision slowly fades away. His last thought is a complaint:

Great, now he's going to be stuck on the ground for a full minute while Evelyn deals with a sniper. Of f*cking course he is, it just wouldn't be any fun otherwise.

Then everything goes dark.

(Man that's a big phat mood.) She looks up and around, and notices not one, but two. "Great. GET OUTTA HERE YA DIRTY FUCKS! You there-I'm naming YOU TOM! AND YOU! BEHIND THE TREE! JERRY! REMEMBER. The cat and mouse fear the she-wolf, and I'm QUITE the bitch." She clapped her hands and they glowed a bit, she then reached over to a lamp post, and it melted and fell over in half. She then clapped her hands again, picked up the post, and chucked it like a javeline at the guy at the roof. He was already gone though. "Good. They left. Didn't think I'd updated much as I have." She then looked down at Zenith, and sighed. "Let's see. Your blood can heal. But what will happen to that bullet? Hmmm…to call my brother or not?"

Zenith shifts a little, his brain slowly starting to come back online. The world is still a haze, and he winces at the searing pain in his chest. What happened? What's going on? Who-

Oh, yeah. That happened.

The teen struggles in an attempt to get up, but his body is still coming back online, and it's all he can do to keep himself breathing.

God, he hopes Evelyn is okay.

Evelyn meanwhile had found a third sniper and currently was stomping his head into a bloody pulp on the curve, scream cussing up a storm. She just wanted to not be killed. She then walked over and stood over Zenith. "Oh hey you're alive! Great. What happens to the bullet once you heal?" She asked. "Answer when you can." She then walked over and looted the body.

Zenith grits his teeth, struggling to get up. Unfortunately, he can't move. He attempts to answer, to tell Evelyn that he'll have to dig out the bullet, but the words never leave his lips.

The teen yells mentally as his sight slowly starts to come back. This is a nightmare.

"HEY! THIS DUDES NAME IS JERRY! Damn that musta been confusing. Oooh I'm now 200 bucks richer!" She finished looting him,walked over to Zenith and squished his cheeks. "Become alive."

Zenith gives a weak smile. If he's calculated the time right- and he's not sure he has- he's got a full twenty seconds before he'll be able to start moving. A direct shot to the heart… if they had enough information on him, they were aiming to capture, not kill.

The thought sparks panic in his mind. They sent… three guys?… to take him down. They knew they could incapacitate him with a bullet to the heart. And they most likely wanted Evelyn there not just for her debts, but to manipulate him. Take him down, get the person who owes them debt, and have a tool to manipulate him. Three birds, one stone.

Fifteen seconds left…

She sighed and laid down on the ground,flat next to him,and held his hand. "…the stars are so pretty. Sometimes I wish I was up there. Somewhere. Beautiful. But far away and mystical. A child's wish holder. Something more and better then what I am."

He's… he's never really looked at beauty. He's never really understood the concept of it, really. Look, there's a flower. What makes it pretty? Nothing. It's just a bunch of plant cells with pigments that make colors. What makes it beautiful?

But as he lays there side by side with Evelyn, he can't help but see the beauty in the moment. Not in the stars, but in her.

Five seconds.

"Or become the sky. A big holder of secrets and dreams, and the breaker of limits. A vast emptiness of holding. Admired. But so far away that I wouldn't hurt people." There was a lot of regret and pain she held close to her heart, anyone could tell. Her hand began to slowly slip away. "Sorry…for unloading all of this on you. You probably don't care, or really want to hear it…Since you sorta died and all."

Zenith, finally able to move again, pulls her hand back into his. "I didn't die. I'm right here." He waits a moment, and it's spent in comfortable silence.

"I never really thought of space like that. I've never really thought of anything like that, to be honest. But when you describe it… I think I'm finally starting to see. See what the world really is, the beauty in it. Life isn't always black and white, no matter how much a want it to be. We're both shades of gray, just like everyone else. And- and I do. I do want to hear it. I- Ev, I don't think there's anything you could do that I wouldn't forgive. Anything you could do to make me not what to stand by your side. I'll always be here. Always."

(Oh totally! I just spaced this off) She looked at him with big blue eyes, and smiled softly. "Don't go falling to hard for me ya hear? I don't want to be to blame if and when I hurt you." She said quietly, looking away from him. She definitely held a lot of blame in her heart.