Day 75: Morning, Farwell

[ninelivesonce]

Who: Taura, Sechs
Where: Section #4, Courthouse
Summary: Taura wakes up in Farwell and goes looking for for answers -- and finds a friend.



Taura's pillow was covered in dust. She came awake all of a sudden, as she almost always did, but she didn't move. This wasn't the Institute. She'd really done it. She'd made a leap of faith onto the teleport pad...or a leap of desperation, but was there really a difference? She could give up, or she could keep moving.

Right now, though, she was keeping perfectly still. There was a breeze in the air, dusty concrete underneath her, and sun on her face. No voices. She opened her eyes, and climbed to her feet. She was in a town not unlike the one near the Institute, if it weren't rebuilt as if by magic each time the zombies destroyed it. Not the same town, of course, but similar. Still on the same world, if she had to guess. She walked down the center of the street, peering in broken windows, until she saw a single, fresh, intact footprint. Someone had turned here. The building she stood in front of had been imposing, once; now it was impotent. But even if she was just following a scavenger or someone looking for shelter, she was following someone.

She slipped through the front door as inconspicuously as six and a half feet of heavily armed genetically engineered soldier could.

Comments

[damned_rebel]

Marc didn't blame them for being angry, for being furious. That was the whole reason that he was here, because he hadn't been willing to stand by and let the military and Martin Landel get away with this kind of thing. If he was this upset about it, he could barely even imagine how they felt as the victims of this whole mess.

"I know. You're right, everyone got really desperate. We thought this whole world might be wiped clean the next time an attack came, but this rebel group was started because we didn't see this as the right solution. This is our fight, not yours, and it's wrong to make you participate against your will."

He was on their side and he had been from the start. He only wished he'd been able to convey more of this sooner, but he'd had to be so careful with how much he said over his broadcasts. Now that they were outside of Landel's jurisdiction, he could finally be open about everything.

When they asked about who the real enemy was, Marc shook his head. "That's the thing, this is all preemptive. We don't know that they'll be coming back to attack us again, but on the off chance that they do, they wanted to be prepared. What I want to do is shut down Landel and get you all out of here before anything happens."

And with Landel's destroyed, then the patients could make their own decision on whether they wanted to return to their homes or stay here and fight, though after everything that had happened, he couldn't imagine why any of them would be willing to help.

[ninelivesonce]

"There aren't very many of us left." If he wanted an army, he should have started sooner. "But I'll do what I can." She didn't speak for Sechs; he was angry at all of them, and it was up to him to help or to go it alone.

Her anger was for the waste of lives -- so many, and all they'd done was run around in Landel's prison being experimented on. It was the story of her life, before the Dendarii. Design a perfect weapon (or at least attempt to; Taura didn't claim they'd succeeded in perfection, but she didn't think she'd turned out too shabby after all), and then have no idea what to do with it.

"Aim me. I don't know enough to know where to start." It was giving Marc a lot of power over her, and a lot of trust. It was also the fastest way to know where she stood with him; he'd do what she asked, or he'd betray her. Either way, her next step would be clear.

[sixth_attack]

While Taura seemed pretty clear on the role she was willing to take on in the rebel's struggle, Sechs wasn't so sure. "I wanna stop Landel too," he said. "But if we do that, what happens then? What if it turns out to be all for nothing?"

For the past few weeks of captivity, all Sechs wanted was to kill Landel and return home. End of story. But things had gotten complicated since his kidnapping. He made friends he didn't think he ever would need and he learned that being able to fight wasn't the only quality needed to become a true warrior. While he may have been beaten down many times in the institute, Sechs had grown up faster than he ever did during his past two years back home. He now knew that having friends to care about wasn't a weakness, nor could battle be truly won by simply defeating the other opponent. Things were much different now.

"If those intergalactic jackasses or whatever you call 'em come back, what if another 'Landel's Institute' pops up and the whole damned cycle starts all over again?" Sechs questioned, frowning as he felt a slight headache coming on from all this pondering. "Hell, what if those invaders go after other worlds than just this one?"

Damn...! This whole being able to go to other worlds sure opened up a huge can of multiverse wormholes!

"I'm gonna help ya with Landel, don't get me wrong on that! But... I wanna go home too..." Sechs sighed. He knew by now that the Z.O.T Tournament back in his homeworld was long done, so what was the point of rushing back home then? And if Alita was trapped in this world as well...

"If I find Alita and she decides to stay here and fight, then I'll do the same," he said. "But if she'd rather go home..." Sechs trailed off. He could never say no to a battle with those responsible for his suffering, but to lose his chance at fighting his Original for a second time? He tiredly shook his head with a gruff sigh. This was giving him a headache! "I dunno... I'll figure it out later."

"Right now, I wanna know what we can do against Landel, tonight," Sechs declared, eager to help as soon as possible. "What do ya need from us? I'm not sitting around on my ass all night again!"

[damned_rebel]

Maybe there weren't many of them left at this point now that Landel was catching on to what they had planned, but people had their powers back out here. It gave them some kind of chance, if forces came from the outside.

Taura agreed to help without much need for convincing, surprisingly enough. Maybe she was a soldier where she came from, and so this was more second nature than anything. Considering her height and her build, Marc wouldn't be surprised by that at all.

Sechs was the one with more questions, though he also made it clear that he wanted to help. Marc rubbed at the back of his neck, thinking it all over.

"Well, if we killed Landel, there can never be another Landel's Institute. He's the one with the powers to bring you all here, and to limit your abilities. If he's gone, then the military will be cut off from other worlds." That was why they couldn't just capture Landel. They needed to put him down. It might not be pleasant, but it was necessary.

"You can decide what you want to do when the time comes. As for getting you back home, whoever's still at the institute's gonna have to work on that one.

"We all need to keep our eyes out for the military getting involved. They're probably going to pick up on what's happening here pretty soon, so I wouldn't be surprised if the tanks start rolling in." Marc eyed Sechs, brow furrowed in concern. "Not really sure you're in good enough shape for that kind of fighting, though."

[ninelivesonce]

"What about people who were already sent home?" She'd made promises on credit, promises to find a way to save people going home to nothing but an empty coffin, credit that was running out fast. Time to call it due.

"If we get in there, couldn't we recruit? By asking, I mean."

[sixth_attack]

Somewhat satisfied with Marc's answers for now, Sechs nodded with a gruff huff. He still couldn't relax, not when Marc was mentioning possible tanks to fight against. Just thinking about such a battle made his craving for action unbearable to ignore!

Yet such drool-inducing daydreaming was cut short by Marc's chiding. "Wah?!" Sechs bristled from the rebel leader's admonishing glance. "Oh c'mon! I'm going back to that institute tonight, you hear me?!" he growled. "Even if I have to get there on a pair of crutches--!"

Sechs' outburst triggered another painful spasm in his back, forcing him to lay back down on his cot. A moment of begrudged reconsidering after, and Sechs gave out a disgruntled sigh. "Look, if you guys can help me heal up as much as possible for tonight, then I'll stay put and rest," he grumbled, looking up at Marc with a discontented pout. "How does that sound? You won't have to worry about me hurting myself and I'll do what I can to help out later."

Keeping flat on his back, Sechs turned his gaze back up to the ceiling, his brows furrowed with worry. "I wanna at least get some people I know outta that damn place before its too late!"

In Sechs' opinion, whether by recruitment or simply asking, anyone trapped in that institute had to get out of there now.

[damned_rebel]

Sent home? Marc didn't think anyone had actually been sent home. "Anyone who's left the institute is either brainwashed or... dead," he said, not all that fond of being the bearer of bad news. But he wasn't going to lie to them either.

"The brainwashing should wear off as soon as Landel is dead, since he's the one who's the source of it."

If they wanted to head back into that place, then Marc wasn't going to stop them, but he hoped that they knew it wasn't going to be an easy task. It was a long walk, and they'd lose any power they had as soon as they were under Landel's influence again.

"You can definitely give it a try. And yeah, we'll fix you up as best we can, and hopefully it'll be good enough," he told Sechs, sighing heavily. He didn't know how much they could really do for him, but there were a few medics that could work on him today.