Soldiers Of Fortune (For Crim)

"That's nice of you." Rache retorted sarcastically. "If you must know, Devin is in a coma. You didn't kill her, her body is in full working order. It's just her mind." He gave a light shrug. He cared, but he knew these things happened. He'd grown up with death.

Taking another sharp turn, he lead Alexis into a large, white room, much like the original room he had occupied. One of the nurses looked up from her current occupation, sorting through rather large needles. Rache gave a general gesture toward Alexis, and she stood straight, walking over to a bed and grabbing the curtain.

"Come sit 'ere Darlin'." The woman said, patting the bed. She wasn't unattractive, but she did resemble one of those stereotypical school nurses that were under paid, and under educated for the job.

Devin, now that was a cool name, but to learn that she was in a coma, felt weird. He was certain now that they were pumping the air vents with some sort of odourless chemical to affect his emotions.

He never liked needles, put up with them yes, but it was just the feeling of being pricked with one, tranq dart, injection against the flu or blood taken for a check up, Alexis inwardly bristled every time he saw one. The nurse going through a huge assortment of them didn't help as he was nodded at and motioned to take a seat on the bed behind the curtain, nearly stepping back instead.

Pulling his shoulders back, the brunet with the towel still on his head walked forwards and took a seat in the middle of the bed, feet swinging a little in wait, fingers curling around the edge of the bed.

Rache remained at the door as the nurse drew the curtain, the assortment of needles left abandoned.

"Hokay, just a routine check up, yeah?" She asked, making herself busy with the stethoscope. A small 'this might be cold' passed her lips as she pushed the loose material of his shirt aside, the earpieces in place and the cool metal sphere sliding against his skin.

The check-up was indeed routine, a few tests here and there; blood pressure, breathing, reflexes, eye sight and of course hearing.

All the while Rache remained at the door, watching their shadows from behind the curtain.

The stethoscope was freezing, like she had just taken it out of the fridge and immediately placed on his skin, breathing, eyesight, it was just as she said, a regular check up. A few thin bandages placed over the rope burns on his wrists and ankles, one around his head once the towel was taken off and the large cut on the back of his head and a few band aids placed on cuts and he was set free, the curtain pulled back and Alexis walking to the door, pulling his fringe out from under the bandage on his head so he didn't look so bad.

"All done, can we get out of here please?" He asked Rache, quickly looking over his shoulder at the nurse and the pile of needles before giving a quick smile and turning back.

"Don't like nurses?" Rache asked mockingly, pushing away from the doorframe and turning about face to lead the kid back down the hall. He eyed the teenager thoughtfully, the bandages and plasters making him look like a street kid that had been in a bad fight. He basically was a street kid. And he had been in a bad fight. So, the look worked.

"You'll be on lock down, but I hear the beds here are pretty good. So at least that's a plus side." The dormitories weren't far from the medical ward, and for good reason, and Rache was soon pushing a steel, bolted from the outside door open. There were no guards in sight, but the room itself was like a prison, guards metaphorically included.

"I don't like being in places that make me feel physically weak," Alexis retorted, arms crossed over his thin frame, following Rache down the hall, the same hall? He was sure that it was, but if it wasn't, then they did a good job of making everything look the same. Same cracks in the paintwork, fingernail markings from people struggling, it had to be the same hall way. That was handy to know.

Stepping into the new room, the teen walked around the room, hand running over the cold concrete walls, looking up at the obvious security camera in the corner of the room, very doubtful that it was the only one. On the far side of the small room, away from the door, was a King Single bed neatly made and legs bolted to the floor.

Without another word, Alexis crawled under the blankets, laid out on his stomach, and just passed out.

The room was small. The only piece of furniture was the neatly made bed. Or, at least, it had been neatly made. Until Alexis crawled between the sheets and quite literally passed out on impact between his head and the pillow.

Rache watched the kid for a moment more before turning around and sealing the door behind him, a compressed burst of air alerting him that the door was locked and secure. The leader of the Aufstand hesitated slightly. He didn't really have much else to do. This kid was the last of the week that they could afford to recruit. Lynch was getting suspicious, that these 'murdered' Soldiers of his weren't really murdered. The lack of recognisable bodies probably had something to do with that.

Shaking his head slightly, he decided to pay a quick visit to the hospital sector, find out the number of fatalities of the day, and then head to bed.

--

His night was dreamless, blank and dark. His rest was peaceful, from the outside, but his sleep was broken like usual. Rache awoke periodically throughout the night, screams of terror erupting in his ears, only to be silenced by consciousness. When dawn finally broke, he showered once more, tidied his appearance, and donned his usual, calm exterior. It was one thing for a leader like him to be soft, but for him to be weak, whether it be physically or mentally, would be the downfall of the Rebellion.

Returning to the dormitories, he sat, watched and waited outside Alexis' room, eyes pinned to the screen that was built neatly into the wall beside his door. It was obvious his sleep was restless, the bags under his eyes heavy and dark, but that was the only tell tale.

Alexis's own sleep was that of nightmares, the training, the life on the streets, the loss of his family he forgot about until now, tossing and turning in the bed as he dreamt of the rain falling down on top of him, jolting awake at the hand that grabbed his shoulder in his dreams, soaked with sweat.

Punching the pillow a few times, he cursed not being able to remember anything he dreamt as he rolled over to stare at the ceiling, counting the cracks in the paintwork as his rapid breathing slowed down to a more steady pace, playing with his longish hair as he thought.

He honestly couldn't be developing a conscious, was he?

Watching Alexis was like a bad memory, one of the few that he wished he'd never recovered from the Obedience. Turning his gaze away from the screen, Rache collected himself before standing from the plastic chair against the wall, pushing it into the corner with a sharp scraping of plastic on linoleum.

The door gave a hiss as the seal was broken, Rache's broad frame pushing it's way through the opening doorway, only to lean against the door frame.

"Bad dream?" He questioned, only half teasing. There was more empathy in his eyes than there was mockery. The older man understood what the teenager was going through, whether or not he wanted to.

"Yeah... Bad dream," Alexis echoed, sitting up in the bed as Rache entered the room, looking a little worse for wear, like he had the same kind of dreams he did all through the night. "Very... bad dreams."

He let the silence linger for a while before sliding out of the sheets and stretching, picking the sweat soaked shirt off his body. "You, look like shit. Did you actually sleep at all last night?" He quipped, nodding his head at the leader.

"I slept." Rache replied flatly. "Why? Do you care?" He gave Alexis a thoughtful look, the same look he'd given a few times.

That day had a few things planned out for the teenager; questioning, testing, food, probably a bath or shower. He wouldn't be allowed interaction with other recruits as of yet, not until they were satisfied he was completely free of the Obedience.

He felt sorry for the kid. He felt sorry for all of the kids that came through here. Namely because they had to go through Scriosta first. It was Hellish, even for the best of them.

The teen bristled a little at being asked if he cared or not about the other man. "Tch, I was only asking since you look like shit compared to yesterday," Was the reply, curling his toes on the cold floor before glancing to the door. He was feeling a little better, if not a lot less dizzy, but he still hadn't eaten, and he still figured his chances of escape were slim to nothing.

"What do you have in store for me today then, huh?"

Rache snorted at the other's response. The kid was hardly subtle.

"Considering you fell asleep before eating last night, food is probably first on the menu." He offered quietly, stifling a yawn with the back of his hand. Damn. That one slipped through. Quickly recovering from the large intake of breath, he stood from the door frame and pushed the steel door open further; a gesture for Alexis to follow him.

Rache let a yawn slip as Alexis's stomach revealed how hungry he was in the form of a huge stomach rumble, patting his abdomen as he made his way out of the the room and into the hall, turning back to Rache.

"You're not going to fall asleep due to lack of sleep, are you?" He asked, half mocking, half in concern for the man. Only concern meaning he really didn't want to be left alone with anyone else because he wouldn't be able to get away with the amount of shit stirring he was with Rache.

Him? Fall asleep? Laughable.

"No, I won't. I'm not that useless." Rache replied flatly, closing the door behind them. He wasn't particularly in a good mood, but he wasn't pissy either. Just tired.

"So. Honey roasted cashews still a request?" He asked, running a hand back through his hair. He hesitated a moment before adding his findings of the previous night.

"Oh, yes. Devin is awake, if you're interested. She says no hard feelings." He gave a light shrug, only passing on the message as a friendly notion toward Devin.

Alexis stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the older male with a look of shock on his face. He never said anything more than a small mutter about his favourite food and the man had heard him through the shutting of the heavy steel door to the shower bay. Either the man was lying about what abilities he had, or his sense of hearing was a lot better then the teen was gonna give him credit for.

But then Rache mentioned that Devin was awake from her coma, the one he put her in. He snorted at the man's attempt at lying on behalf of the girl. Anyone who shared a temper as they did, cocky and prideful, she would have never said such a thing. Heck, punching his head in was probably the only thing that kept her from dying.

"You're such an asshole. She'd never say that and you know it," Alexis said, not with any nasty intentions, but stated as a fact. It almost made him smile, and he could feel the tug of it at the corner of his lips.

Glancing back toward the teenager, Rache lifted a brow, continuing to walk absently down the hall.

"Believe what you will." He shrugged. Alexis could believe what he wanted; whether or not Rache was telling the truth or not was however a different matter. "We'll be stopping by the hospital wing later on anyway. Tour of the area and all." A last minute change of plan was always good; he mostly wanted to suss out the other's reaction to such ideas of facing other people. With the Obedience, people didn't often feel much remorse for their actions. To know that the Obedience was wearing off, often such things were necessary.

"After we eat, of course."

It took a moment for Alexis to catch up to Rache after he stated that they were going to go visit Devin and the hospital wing. No way he was going there, and the look on his face showed it. He didn't want to be in a place filled with the weak and... her.

"I'm not going. You make me go anywhere near that place and I will kill as many people as I can get a hold of before you put me down..." He growled, folding his arms over his chest. "Food, sure thing, but I don't need to go to the hospital. I'm not as injured as I was, I was looked over last night, I'm not going."

Rache paused. What a reaction. He wasn't expecting that.

Well, okay, maybe a little-- but that was a vicious response.

"We'll only be passing through. The Grand Tour can't skip over things just because you're scared." He replied mockingly, though his expression was rather serious.

Pushing open the door to the kitchen, he wandered over to the oven, not worrying about Alexis following him or not. He was sure that he would. And if he didn't, well. It was his funeral. It was usually around this time that it was decided whether the recruit was worth keeping around or not.

"Eggs alright?" He questioned without looking back, pulling the oven door down, a warm puff of air rolling out against his face as he retrieved two plates of freshly made scrambled eggs on toast. The chef had been in not too long ago on Rache's request and whipped breakfast up specifically for them.

Eyeing off the eggs on toast, Alexis didn't hold back the look of hunger, letting it take over the darkened expression he wore until the plate was set down for him, waiting almost for a signal to eat like a trained dog. That didn't stop his mouth from running though.

"I'm not scared," He spat, glaring venom at the older male. "I know what you are trying to do here. It's the same as training before. Show you the corpse of your victim to see if you feel anything for them, I'm not stupid. You want to show me that stupid chick's limp and broken form to see if I care for what I did to her. Here's a tip, you don't want anyone hurt, don't fucking send them into battle without proper training!"

He banged his fist down on the bench hard, turning his back on the offered breakfast. Rache should have known better, honestly. If she couldn't handle her own abilities, which, by the looks of it, didn't even know her limits, then she should not have gone after him. His master wouldn't have sent him out if he didn't know his limits.

It was one of his pet peeves, people not trained to do their jobs properly. He doubted Devin fully understood what she was going after, and he was sick of seeing people die all around him that wasn't the target or enemy of his leader.

Shit... he did care about people.

"Touchy, touchy." Rache retorted. It seemed Alexis had been trained well. That was good. It was undoing the training to the right point that was the problem. Now, to see how far he could be pushed.

"Maybe I didn't care about what happened to her? She needed to start somewhere. Needed to learn. Maybe this has nothing to do with you, really. For all you know, I could have been lying to you about her being alive. Or maybe she's completely fine, already back out on the field." He was tired. Mind games were never a good idea when Rache was tired. But he couldn't stop himself from running his mouth.

He'd probably regret his words in the long run.

"If you didn't care about her, then wow, you are the most shitty leader I have ever seen! I guess given here a warrior's death, fair enough, I'd wanna choose that one too, being just as prideful as she is, or was, depending on if she's still alive," Alexis snapped back, turning back around and rounding the bench in the center of the kitchen as he spoke his mind the most freely he had ever been able to in his life.

"Of course this has everything to do with me, I was kidnapped for your stupid, twisted plans and she was just a piece of trash you turned from someone who could have trained her a lot better in the art of assassination then what you obviously ever could before sending her to a pointless death! You know what, I hope she's dead, cause there is no way that girl would be walking around today after I nearly snapped her neck. Fuck, I nearly crushed her windpipe, as a well trained person should have! I was just interrupted by your stupid little riot clad posse of gang bashers!"

Alexis was wild, furious beyond anything he had ever felt before. Never had he expressed such raw emotion, and he was about ready to leap over the counter and plant his fist into Rache's face. In fact, he now hated everything.

"Fuck you, fuck your little secret club and fuck everyone else! I want out of here, right fucking now!"

Silence. Alexis' rant was met with nothing but silence, and a satisfied look plastered on Rache's face. So he did have feelings, emotions and opinions. He hadn't moved from where he stood, in fact that man had anticipated a physical assault from the teenager. Though the surprise was that Alexis had managed to control himself enough to restrain his fists.

"Feel better?" He asked calmly, leaning forward on the counter, his eyes pinned on Alexis'. "Because unfortunately for you the only way out is death. Scriosta believe you to be dead. You try to return there, they'll believe you compromised and kill you on sight. You try to leave here in your state, you're dead as soon as you step out that door." He gestured toward the swinging kitchen door with a light nod in it's direction.

"No matter how you look at it, life isn't fair." He stood up straight after that and scratched at the back of his neck. "And for the record, I do care. I know I talk in circles, give you no reason to believe me, but I do care. It's why I'm here dealing with you and not leaving you to the vices of the other Soldiers. They don't appreciate what you did to Devin. And you're right." He paused, straightening his shirt absently. "She won't be walking any time soon. She's deaf in one ear, can't breathe on her own and has absolutely no feeling in the left side of her body."

Rache folded his arms, giving Alexis a stern look.
"If she hadn't regained consciousness and told us she wanted the chance to be rehabilitated into this life, we would have shut the machines down and carted her off to the morgue." Biting back a scowl, the man glanced away from the teenager. "No matter how hard I try to save the lives of those suffering under the order of the Scriosta, there are always casualties. I can't save them all, and we can't afford to take care of those who can't fend for themselves." It seemed, explaining all this took more out of him than the lack of sleep; Rache looked more exhausted than he had previously, if that was even possible.

"And we all understand that. We all know that if we're a liability, we're as good as dead."

Strangely enough, Alexis felt a lot better, a lot lighter in body and in mind, like all that ranting and carrying on was long over due, and it showed in the way he straightened up when Rache nodded to the kitchen door behind him. "Death is always the only option for our kind. I was going to jump out of my own bedroom window and plummet to my death before your moron's pretty much cock blocked me, so I'm not scared of dying," He replied, tone still angry, just not filled with the venom it held a few moments ago.

"And you're wrong, about Scriosta. They know what is going on, Lynch knows you've been taking people, so..." The teen paused, confusion crossing his thin face. He called his master by his actual name, instead of the usual royalties that anyone in Scriosta did when speaking about their leader, rubbing his scarred shoulder as he rounded the bench, looking for the knife drawer. "There is a lot more going on then you assume, and in a much larger scale then you imagine..."

Finding the knife drawer and taking out a small, thin blade used for peeling fruit, Alexis stepped away from Rache, rounding the bench once more, out of reach of the man before he could be stopped. "As for the ones who didn't like what I did to Devin, throw me to the wolves if it appeases them."

Rache watched. He listened. And he waited. The knife was a liability, though small. He couldn't read minds, which made it difficult to decide whether or not it was a danger.

"All that matters, kid, is that Scriosta is taking innocent kids off the street, fucking with their genetics," He tapped his temple as he spoke, "And then setting them on the world for Lynch's personal fucking gain." Shaking his head, he took a half step back, leaning on the surrounding counter-top.

"Besides. I'm aware what Lynch knows. I'm smarter than he thinks." He hesitated before his next words, eyeing Alexis with a sharp look. "I've got a few rats, y'know. His intelligences aren't as full-proof as he believes." Rache was aware this little secret would go to the kids grave with him; he'd make sure of it, if Alexis didn't do it on his own.