The Chill Between Them (CasualVelociraptor x Alisa_Perne)

[CasualVelociraptor]

Shiloh watched from another rooftop somewhere, and it took all her strength for her not to break down crying and to make her wavering finger push the “Yes” button on the tablet he’d given her to “Execute partial remote data wipe” on all of his memories of Shiloh and of Deirdre, in case Yasmine tried to mine his implant for data with a BioJack, either before or after killing him.

Once it was done, she kept the data connection going for their plan, but looked away because she couldn’t bear to watch her mentor’s death and yelled into the blank night, letting out an impotent rage that had clawed at her very soul for three months.

“I don’t know! I don’t know, okay?!” Beetle screamed back at the penthouse while his brain was set on fire by the wire being pulled and the data wipe eliminated his most precious memories, allowing him to tell the truth. “Just do it if you have the balls, you TRANNY!” he then yelled, thinking that perhaps that hateful word would be the final straw.

 

[Alisa_Perne]

She gritted her teeth, "Not yet." She said, "If you wont tell me, I will tear it from you." She plugged her biojack cable right into his skull port and wrapped her hand around his neck and squeezed as she closed her eyes for a brief second. "It's gone." she said, pulling out the cable, "You really don't know anymore do you? Someone wiped your brain, moments ago, had to have been. She's out there isn't she? Oh I hope she's watching, because shes about to get a show.

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

“She isn’t. She doesn’t have to be,” Beetle lied one last time. The old mercenary then snarled, “Deirdre already knows the kind of person you really are, or she wouldn’t be going after you. I promise you this, though: she will never stop until your money, your shiny buildings, your criminal empire, and your whores Erika and Jane are all gone, and you are left with nothing, just like everyone whose lives you’ve ever ruined in your long career.”

 

[Alisa_Perne]

"Oh I know shes watching." She connected her cable again then radioed Jane and Erika, and even spoke to Dierdre, "I am in control of your Streem, and if you want to show the world how violent I am. Let me help you, I will record this for you, through my eyes and I will broadcast it to the entire burg before sunrise, on every holoboard, but I will not be painted as a villain here." She took control of the stream, and now Jane, Erika and Dierdre could see through her eyes instead as the gripped Beetles eye implants. "This man, impregnated, then killed my wife, then framed someone else for the crime whom I had killed. He just said it too." She played back the recording through her eyes. "SURPRISE!" She said, "I am never not recording, so now that we have that cleared up, time for your sentence. As you are all aware, the punishment for murder in the burg is regrettably also, death." She dug her fingers in deeper. "Any last words?" She asked.

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

“FUCK YOU! Jessica’s death was an accident, though her contempt for you was not, and I tried to make it right after all these years, but you decided to evict and beat on innocent people to have yet another overpriced property, and somehow your wealth will make people buy your lies. Fine. I know I have sinned and will be judged before my Creator now, but you will be found wanting when that time comes. If I’m to die, it might as well be opposing your tyranny, Yasmine,” Beetle said. “She is vengeance! She is the night! Deirdre will carry on our fight now!”

 

[Alisa_Perne]

"And die you shall, you defiled my wife, then murdered her with black market abortion pills!" She spat on him then started to pull on his implants, you could hear the tearing of skin, you could see the blood starting to seep from the sides, she gave a grunt as she put her knee on his chest and leaned back, the implants started to lift, so did the skin, and tissue beneath, "This is what happens when you betray Yasmine Legato." she said tugging harder, the implant came out, so did his brains, so did half his face, in a glorious visceral spray of skin and blood. She stared at the bloodied corpse of a man for a few seconds before cutting off the broadcast. Calmly, albeit covered in blood, Yasmine uploaded the entire video, including the mans confession of his murder to the holo network, by six am tomorrow, it would be broadcast throughout the entire holoboard network, over, and over and over. Top of the hour, every hour, for 24 hours. Dierdre would get the message, and so would the rest of the world. She then poured herself a glass of champagne, and stood on her balcony, blood covered, smiling over her city.

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

The moment Beetle finished screaming his last, like a wounded animal being put out of its misery, Jane sighed and rubbed her forehead in annoyance while entering the penthouse.

“You’ve been sloppy before, but this is your messiest work yet,” Jane sighed. "Look, I know this isn't what you do all the time, I've killed way more people, in way worse ways, for America's 'freedom' and 'security,' so I have no high horse to sit on, and I've loved you for way too long to just throw it all away over one guy, no matter how much I thought I cared for him. I mean it when I said I want to marry you, and since this doesn't change that, nothing will. But, while I'm sure Beetle deserved to die...I knew he did this six months ago, loved him, held him in my arms as he cried over the colossal guilt he felt, broke up with him because duh, and completely understood his fear of coming forward. So now what? Are you going to kill me too for keeping his secret? Hm? Because we worried about that. But I always thought...yeah, maybe the old Yasmine would kill him, but that's in the past.

"Now, you might be having another kid. Did you think about the example you're setting them? What will they think when they see their mother pulling out a man's brain like an old car engine? Why did you have Erika see it? To terrify her? To make her think more carefully before ever saying something you don't like? Are people who leave bad reviews of your restaurants going to die now because they're betraying you? There are so many other things to consider...but the thing is, I would have just buried the body at sea and no one else would have been the wiser."

Just like all the others I've dumped in the ocean like I'm taking out the fucking trash. And now you've had your date with Erika and have started a war before I can safely get to really know you. Juuuust great, Yasmine, Jane thought to herself.

"I don't know where this is going. Just...next time you have to make an example of someone, clue me in first, alright? And maybe don't beat up an old lady? Just a thought," Jane said and hugged herself to Yasmine tightly. Never letting her go.

Erika, for her part, cried at the video. Not just because Yasmine had done the unthinkable, something that had only ever been rumored before. She mourned the loss of his mentor...the only man who'd sheltered her...who'd given her her friends. But also the ideal of Beetle, the father figure and noble dropper who could do no wrong in her eyes. They were both murderers, and they both deserved each other.

But she'd gotten a pregnancy test, and it was already positive. As long as this life grew inside her, there was still hope that the part of Yasmine that had held and loved her so thoroughly as her desire had been unleashed inside Erika was still in there. Somewhere.

She had to hope, because to not hope was to go mad.

Which, Shiloh was on the verge of doing. Months of being abandoned, months of losing everyone she cared about, and months of enduring all this alone made the young Irish girl want to snap the tablet in half and cry until she died. Because, apparently, she could do nothing right, everyone around her died, or sold out like Erika, and the only reminder she had of the person who had cared about her without condition was his sperm in an InfiniCool medical grade freezer in a can. Stupid, stupid, stupid little girl.

Instead, she tightened her free fist and punched a wall to get out some of her aggression, and to have the pain distract from the fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness threatening to bubble up again and consume her.

The only reason she'd gone along with Beetle's plan to bait her was because he said he had a brain tumor and was going to die anyway. But somehow, deep down, after Yasmine had bought the safety of everyone at Brona's and seemed to be treating Erika so well, with Erika genuinely in love with her from what she had heard down the grapevine, Shiloh hoped that Yasmine would prove her wrong. That she would choose mercy and justice over blind revenge. Perhaps that would have lifted the blinders from her own eyes.

Now? Now the war was on. This time for good. Shiloh sealed it with the scream of someone with nothing left to lose, and lightning flashed to reveal Deirdre in her armor.

"You're lucky I will never kill," Shiloh then said to no one, as her tears and the rain rolled down her face in equal measure. That was the One Rule she'd put on herself after watching the life drain from the Irish Irredentist Legion monster who'd killed her parents and tried to gut her while he laughed. "But I'll break every bone in your body, slowly, and make you wish I could."

 

[Alisa_Perne]

"Jane? You knew?" She walked over to her, with all the fury she could muster, then when her fist was balled, and it looked as if she would try to beat the woman to a bloody pulp, her look softened, and she pushed into the woman and rested her head on her chest, and began to softly sob, "I've done a terrible thing, haven't I?" she said, dropping the glass making it shatter on the ground beneath her feet, "I forgive you." she said, sobbing quietly into the woman's chest. "I need a drink." She said chuckling through sobs.

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

"Now she gets it!" Jane joked, relaxing her muscles that had tensed in an anticipation of yelling at a delusional Yasmine not to test her patience ever again. That hidden imbalance in their relationship, where Jane could smack Yasmine clear across the room if she wanted to, would remain hidden for now. Or perhaps Yasmine knew and loved Jane for being able to check her on her shit without flexing a single muscle. "And I've done a terrible thing by not telling you earlier, because of my own fears. So, let's be terrible people together?"

A rain soaked Erika now barged in between them. Just like she always does, and always will, Jane begrudged her.

Without any words, Erika stomped over to Yasmine and then slapped her across the face. "How could you? HOW COULD YOU?!" she then screamed, and crumpled to the floor in a sobbing mess.

 

[Alisa_Perne]

Yasmine had stopped crying, but that slap to the face from Erika hurt her more than anything she had ever felt before, it wasn't because Erika was some sort of strong woman, in comparison to Jane the smack was relatively weak, but what made her cry was the words and intentions behind it. Yasmine dropped to the floor next to Erika and held her tight. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry....." She whispered these words over and over into Erika's ear, rocking her back and forth and crying with her. "I'm so sorry."

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

"Just, don't say anything!" Erika fumed, crying into her shoulder while guards carried out the body and the bloodied couch. She was angry with her beloved, but nevertheless found the guest bed that had not been put on the roof, and kissed Yasmine while bringing her to bed. She didn't even know if she wanted sex again, necessarily, but holding her and impressing upon her the way that Erika had been hurt by this seemed the best way to purge her feelings. Meanwhile, she tried not to think too much about how close this Deirdre, whoever she was, had been to Beetle and how she was feeling.

 

[Alisa_Perne]

Yasmine held Erika, "I'm sorry." She whispered, crying again. "I should have spared him. I was so blinded by rage, he violated my Jessica, he got her pregnant, then out of fear he gave her a black market abortion pill, it poisoned her and killed her, then he pinned the death on another man." Tears ran down her cheeks as she was reliving the story, again and again it seemed, "What did he mean to you?" She asked, trying to change the subject, and stop crying.

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

"HE WAS MY REAL FATHER DAMMIT! YOU KILLED HIM! You killed him like a monster!" Erika yelled, and kneed Yasmine in the crotch. Apparently she was a little crotch attacker when she got mad. "See? What did I tell you? Not to talk! And what do you do? You open your mouth and ruin everything!"

"You're feeling emotional right now. Just...we probably should all stop talking for a bit. Erika, can I bring you to my old room?" Jane wondered.

Erika nodded quietly, and then gave Jane permission to talk with Yasmine about what Erika and Jane privately discussed. Beetle had apparently had a fling with Haya, her mother and the future Mrs. Chambers, about a week before her father met her in Tokyo and got her pregnant. Erika had had no proof, and without a DNA test, there would be no way to know for sure, but when her mother told her that story, she had come to IceBurgh upon her death mainly to find him, and could see the possible family resemblance in his eyes...when he had eyes of his own, that was.

 

[Alisa_Perne]

Yasmine winced and grabbed her crotch when she was kneed, "I deserved that." she said, her tears were now ones of pain, actual physical pain no longer from emotions. That was the thing about big dicks, they were easy targets, and hurt even more when hit, and boy did this hurt she laid on the bed, crying in agony.

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

Jane came back into the bedroom a little later with an ice pack for Yasmine's crotch. Sometimes, technology could not replace the simplest remedies.

"Feeling a little better, babe?" Jane asked. "And do you have any ideas for how to help Erika feel the same? Because I've eaten her out a few times, and that has helped a little bit with the stress, but she's still very upset and emotional...and I don't do that very well, as you know."

 

[Alisa_Perne]

Yasmine sat up and winced when she put the ice pack on her crotch, "Get some DNA from that man and..unhhh." she winced again, "Find out if he's really her father." She sat up a little more straight, still wincing, "Unnnnhh, feels like my balls are in my throat." She said, "Finally getting situated and sitting up straight, "Jane?" she said, "I'm sorry, I've caused a huge mess, and it's going to get worse, tomorrow morning, all day, I will have what I did broadcasted through every holoboard in the burg. It's bad, it's really bad. Stop the broadcast, please, just link in to the holo network and delete the files, please. I feel terrible, and a constant reminder to all of us tomorrow is the last thing we need."

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

"It's too late for that, hun," Jane said and turned on the TV, on mute so that Erika couldn't hear. The images on screen were brief flashes of Yasmine's angry face just before she ripped a man's brain out of his skull, as those were the only images of the event that didn't need disclaimers placed before them to advise viewer discretion, and the subtitles made it clear there was punditry going on about whether Yasmine had too much power and impunity. Even all these years after the rise of the Internet, smartphones, and Holoboards, people still listened to the big, glowing idiot box on their walls for their evening news, whether livestreamed over the Burgh-wide 8G speed satellite Internet network called IceNet through supersmart TVs, via the PlayStation 7, Xbox Alpha and Omega, and other devices, or over the air the old fashioned way. (Cable TV had long since died, and good riddance.)

"This is why you should've clued me in. I could've caught something like this. But whether this was something Beetle chose, something Deirdre put him up to, or whether she pressured him into this suicide mission, it doesn't matter now. She made a non-forced sham sacrifice play by deciding to give up a queen to be able to checkmate you, and you took the bait," Jane continued, inadvertently revealing that she played chess. (Nearly all super soldiers did, in order to hone their tactical and strategic thinking.)

"This may not be what turns the city against you, since practically no one doesn't have some darkness in their soul here; it's practically required to survive. But you will need to be very careful from here on out. You can still hit at her hard, but you can't let her get in your head."

 

[Alisa_Perne]

Yasmine looked at the TV, reliving her horrible deed, over and over and over, and what she saw, she hated, she flew into a panic, reached into the bedside table, pulled out a gun and put it to her head. "Let me just give this city what they want." she said, "I'll just end it all now, give them all what they want." Her finger was on the trigger, "I've hurt those closest to me, I made my own flesh and blood seek a life outside of this one just because he thought I was a psychopath, I turned friends into enemies and enemies into friends I don't deserve to breathe the purified air in this tower anymore."

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

Jane was just about to scold Yasmine about being a coward like always, and how dare she leave Erika's child without a father, and Erika without closure (though, she ordered the DNA test by text message with her squad commander). Then a message came from an encrypted number.

"The Council had an emergency meeting about you, just now. They wanted to blow up your penthouse with a missile on live TV and then sprinkle your pieces at the North Pole for the few surviving polar bears to shit out, after which I'm sure Santa Claus's elves would make your shit covered pieces into toys. But I have good intelligence that the real threat isn't this little Deirdre girl that's playing dress-up, but someone in the Metro who's far worse. Far angrier. Far more willing to challenge power. All power. You're our biggest tenant, which is the only argument I could bring that persuaded the Council to stay their hand. The only way you stay alive in this city, and Erika and Jane don't get ripped apart to appease a mob, is if you do everything I say."

Three dots, and then another message. "Starting now, I- and by extension, the Resort Corporation- own you. Text me confirmation that you've terminated your security contract with the Neo Varangians and are awarding it to IceBurgh Resort Security." This was worth 50 million Burgh Bucks a year. "Then kick this exact account back another ten mil through wire transfer, like you spent on those hos." That was the purchase price of Brona's. "Or, I have no incentive to reveal who this mystery threat to you is, and I'll just enjoy watching and taking bets on the Dark Web about who will get you first: the Council, Deirdre, or the other masked vigilante."

 

[Alisa_Perne]

Yasmine dropped the gun, "Jane...I need you to trace a contact." She replied to the message, "Consider it done by the end of the day." She then handed the phone to Jane, "Track this, track it now, track it quickly, this was not a bluff, they know something, and we need to find out before they have us all killed." She gritted her teeth, she had truly dragged them into a mess this time, and she wasn't sure there was a way out that wasn't bloody and would leave behind a trail of bodies.

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

"I'll see what I can find out. For now, keep playing along with this guy," Jane said. "Losing the Legato Enterprises contract will be a big blow to the Neo Varangians, but we'll survive. We always do. And honestly, it'll be nice to not officially be working with you, at least not on paper, so that I don't have to bring my work home with me all the time, and we can actually be intimate, emotionally as well as physically. The most important thing right now is to get some rest and start to repair your relationship with Erika."

 

[Alisa_Perne]

"Send Erika in here, in about thirty minutes, I-I-I need to make some phone calls." Yasmine proceeded to call her lawyers, her accountants, her people basically, she reorganized everything and met the demands of the mystery person. It left her drained, and exhausted, and depressed. Yasmine only hoped Erika would come in and they could talk.

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

Once Jane called Erika in, she proceeded to make her emotional state plain.

"These past three months have been...a rollercoaster to say the least," the Japanese courier said. "I hope you don't mind me piling on to your plate a little more by confirming that I'm pregnant. I didn't expect to see this side of you that I had an inkling existed so soon after opening my heart to you, but you didn't mean to hurt me with this, and I hope this news can lift your spirits, because it just seems as if you had a bad day, and that you have a temper, a quick sense of being threatened, and a lot of baggage. Who isn't a little short-fused in IceBurgh, though?" And who kills a guy with the very same temper? she thought as a counter to her own attempt to downplay this. She was still trying to process that fact, leaving aside the possibility that her father might be dead in the ground.

"Oh, Jane also told me"- while Jane had been licking Erika’s pussy until it almost went numb, which felt empty but allowed her to forget in the pursuit of hedonism- "that you're ordering a DNA test to confirm if Beetle really was my sire. Not father, sire. He didn't know he had a daughter, therefore how can I be upset that I don't have a father I never knew about? Still, I appreciate the gesture, and perhaps it'll give me closure, so I can move on someday and take these next months of my pregnancy to try to trust you, let alone have sex or be romantic." Again, Erika didn't expect this to happen on the very same day she'd consummated her love for Yasmine, which, despite everything, still burned brightly, if perhaps irrationally. "For my part, I'll work to continue to be understanding, to help you shoulder this burden, and get out there to help stop Deirdre while my body is still able to do so, before she manipulates us even more," Erika said, wiping away a tear that confirmed that she was still upset about it anyway, despite her attempts to keep the peace and her own turmoil about whether to terminate the pregnancy and run before any of this shit dragged her in further through a whirlpool of crazy.

"The only thing we can do is try to move forward. Perhaps you should seek therapy to get to the root of your insecurities and anger management issues, but now that you have someone- or someones- to change for, you can be a better mother to our little one," Erika continued, rubbing her belly. "The future, that we build together, is what matters here." She then leaned in to try to kiss her on the lips, but ended up landing a chaste kiss on the left cheek.

 

[Alisa_Perne]

"You will do no such thing." Yasmine said, smiling, "You are pregnant, therefore you are valuable, more valuable than anyone here because you are carrying my child." She stood up, albeit wincing as her groin was still sore, "You really need to stop going for my junk when you are mad." Yasmine chuckled and pulled Erika down onto the bed with her, "I promise I will do my best, and a Legato never breaks a promise, remember?" The booped Erika on the nose and smiled, "As long as you will keep yourself from harm, and be by my side where you belong with me and Jane, I will move mountains for you." Yasmine smiled a broad smile, and put a hand over Erikas stomach, "I can't believe I will have a child again, at my age, I never thought it would really come true." A tear of happiness ran down her cheek.

 

[CasualVelociraptor]

"I appreciate everything you're saying, but words are words, and there have to be consequences if you're telling me lies. If, however, a Legato never breaks a promise, then promise me this," Erika snarled, seizing Yasmine's face and looking at her directly. "Do not kill anyone ever again, do you hear me? I don't care about your other crimes, or what other flimsy laws in this totalitarian shitheap you have to break to protect us and our family. But if I find out that you directly end any life- or order anyone to do so, though I will not hold you responsible for the brutality of IBRS, as it seems you're being forced to work with them from what Jane told me- any at all..."

Even if Deirdre is Shiloh. Especially then, Erika said.

"Then it's fucking over. Do you hear me? I hate to say that our love could die when it's so new, but I will not hesitate to protect myself if you cannot control your behavior. And I'm taking the baby with me. If you agree to this, then kiss me. Otherwise, I walk now."