Chains of Retribution Bloodstone Medical Center - Part 1: The Aftermath

[Tiko]

as written by Tiko and Dashmiel

It wasn't until Vanessa had drifted back to sleep that Bastien departed the room, closing the door behind him quietly.

Ragenard padded along the hallways of the Med Center in search of Bastien with his silent specter trailing behind him. He was glad to see she hadn't given him any headaches so far, at least enough to be reasonably sure she could be left under watch that wasn't his personally. At least for a short time.

His nose twitched as he rounded a corner and spotted Bastien further down the hall.

"Hey Bast!" Ragenard bellowed, beckoning the man over.

"Trying to wake the dead?" Bastien asked with a quirk of his eyebrow. "Got all the weapons accounted for, like you asked."

"The dead don't listen, and the living never hear" Ragenard replied almost offhandedly before favoring Bastien with an appreciative nod.

"Good. Got another thing I need for you to account for" he said hooking a thumb over his shoulder.

"Now that the sun's starting to drop, there's some errands outside I need to take care for a bit. Maybe two, three hours. I need her watched. The whole time" Ragenard finished, turning his head slightly so he could add in a sideways glance at Eliza for extra emphasis.

"Yeah, sure," Bastien answered. "Things seem to have quieted down around here for the most part."

"I'm not sure it'll last, but I'll take it," Ragenard replied, before an errant thought struck him, "You've seen Desmond around? I got something important I need him to take care of."

"Wait, you mean you didn't send him out already?" Bastien asked.

"The fuck are you talking about?" Ragenard exclaimed bemusedly.

"I'm talking about the fact that he's not here," Bastien answered. "Him or Chloe. I was over this whole building, and neither of them were here. I just assumed you sent them out with the others."

It took Ragenard a moment to actually register what he was hearing, and his features snapped back to the scowl that had only just begun to soften over the past few hours. Here then, was the other shoe that Ragenard was sure would soon drop.

"How long since you noticed they were gone?" Ragenard growled.

"A few hours maybe?" Bastien answered with a frown. "Why the hell would they just take off on their own?"

"It's Desmond, so probably a good intention backed by a moronically unstable plan. Either that or he's off breaking in his new pet..." Ragenard trailed off, shockingly hoping for Desmond's sake that he let his little head lead him off for once, and not his often misguided sense of purpose.

"Either way, fucker's in my shit list. You see him, you tell him I'm looking for him and in a hard way. Take care of the place, and watch the mute. I gotta go do some shit and check on the other stray."

 

[Tiko]

as written by Tiko and LuLu6214

As Ragenard headed off, Bastien gave Eliza a shake of his head.

"For what its worth, what went down earlier wasn't my intention," he told her. "Had you spoke up sooner, you might have avoided this whole mess. What I can say though is that we need the rest of those guns, the ones back at your place. The key to your hotel room and those guns would go a long ways with Ragenard."

Eliza looked up at Bastien "I guess old habits die hard. I should have said something..." She pulled a chain from around her neck holding 4 keys and handed it to Bastien, "Hotel key and the others are for the weapons containers in my room...I have enough for a small army, bad habit of collecting weapons instead of having a roof over my head...You know, priorities." She cracked a small smile.

"I'll pass it along when he gets back," Bastien said as he deposited the keys into his pocket. "Don't suppose you want to share where abouts you're from that called for toting an arsenal around Lutetia with you? Most people don't pack that kind of heat in a hotel unless something is chasing them."

She chuckled slightly at his inquiry "I can't exactly tell you where I am from...I don't know, but when you move around as much as I did and come across some pissy packs and leaders, you acquire anything you can to ensure your personal safety. I've made a lot of enemies in my life and I want to make sure they don't come after me...again."

"Well if you're planning to stick around here for any length of time, then we're going to need to know about those enemies of yours," Bastien told her.

He fished a box of cigarette's out of his pocket and offered one out to her.

"Good to know what we might have gotten tangled up in, by keeping you around," he explained.

She sighed and shook her head "When I was first turned I ran into a pack, leader was a tyrant and I didn't stick around, he said if he ever saw me again he'd kill me...luckily I never saw him again. Eventually I met and fell for a guy, loner like me but he became abusive, he didn't seem to understand the word 'No' and said he'd kill me if I left him so...I did what any crazy woman would do and ran. He followed me for some time but I was always one step ahead of him. I haven't seen him in two years and I hope I never do. Other than that...I'm clean."

"Don't suppose you have names on either of them?" Bastien asked.

Pausing for a moment she tried to recall the pack leaders name "The pack leader was...dammit...Nicholas....no wait Nikolai Volkov of the Volkov Pack, more or less translates to Son of Wolves...very fitting in an almost poetic and insane manner, and my lunatic stalker was Nathan Durant. Two names I wish I could forget."

Bastien frowned briefly. He was familiar enough with the name Volkov, as the Bloodstones had dealings with them in the past, but the name Nathan Durant wasn't ringing any bells.

"Alright that's enough for now," he told her. "Come on. I need to find where my daughter got off to."

 

[Tiko]

as written by Tiko and Dashmiel

Some time later...

Ragenard arrived back at Reinhard's heavily burdened with sacks of murder implements and Julienne in tow. His first thought was that things didn't seem to have gone to shit in his absence. His second was just wondering when they would.

Julienne hoisted her own sack of guns up to deposit it with a loud clatter atop one of the tables.

"What now?" she asked.

"Help me put these away," Ragenard answered with a grunt, "We'll use the store room closest to my bunk spot as the pack armory for now."

He was sure the damn sacks weren't this heavy when he had packed them, but he decided his mad dash back to his motel was probably finally taking its toll on him.

"If I didn't know better, I would say you were getting winded," Julienne said with a low chuckle as she hauled her own sack back over her shoulder again.

The chuckle was a rough one though. The walk back to the Reinhard's hauling half a dozen guns had left her shoulder throbbing.

"Fuck me, but maybe I am," he replied with a sigh, "The old geezers used to make this emergency management shit look like a flying cake walk. Poor bastards, now I know the truth."

"Come on, let's get this shit done and sit down for a smoke" Ragenard said, cracking and stretching his neck as he got a better grip on his bundles.

Once they reached their destination, Julienne all but dropped her haul onto the floor of the storage closet before settling down to sit next to it while Ragenard saw to the sorting of the weapons.

"Next time, bring a fucking car?" Julienne muttered. "Got that cigarette?"

"Do I look like the kind of guy with a valid drivers license?" Ragenard asked as he shook out two cigarrettes from a pack in his pocket and passed one to Julienne. "Ain't my fault you're skinny as a twig. My set of wheels is for the country, I don't need that shit in town," he expanded in his defense as he lit his smoke and passed Julienne his lighter.

Julienne popped her own cigarette into her mouth and lit it before inhaling deep. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back with a soft sigh as the smoke coiled past her half parted lips.

"When this shit is over, I'm going to need something stronger than a cigarette," she told him.

"I'll share one of the several small mountains of assorted narcotics I'm planning to scale with you" he replied before taking a few long, quiet drags. "How do you feel about what Baron said?" Ragenard asked suddenly and without preamble.

"What of it?" she asked. "They knew we were going to be there. There's no two way around it."

"Any idea at all as to how?" he countered. "All I got to go on is his wheezing request to go on. I'm fuzzy on the details, who in the Den knew you guys were gearing to go?"

"Who the fuck knows," Julienne answered. "The only one there who wasn't pack was that Ardelean bitch." Another long drag of her cigarette paused her words a moment before she spoke again. "And that's assuming the fucking bar itself wasn't bugged, the way people traipse in and out of there all fucking night. And we can't really sweep it, what with it being burned down."

"All fair points, I guess. But..." Ragenard paused as he took a drag and began using his cigarette to gesticulate. "What, Baron was wrong then? You think he was tripping on blood loss or something? Hallucinating?" he asked, careful to keep the hint of hope to himself.

It would be much easier to dismiss this concern in favor of more immediate problems but that was precisely why it was up to Ragenard to actually consider the possibilities, regardless of how unthinkable he might wish they were.

"He was bleeding the fuck out in the back of a fucking van," Julienne pointed out. "What do you want us to make of it? That one of us was behind it?"

"I don't want you making out jackshit. I want you to keep your eyes open regardless of what you make out, and be prepared for the worst, because let me tell you, it wouldn't be the first snake to slither through our family" he replied amidst a cloud of smoke.