Comments: Here's the follow-up to "Creegan's Holiday" (Warning:Sexually Explicit in some areas) 

"Wanted"

January 10, 2004
By: Creegan

A few weeks have dissipated since I kidnapped this auburn haired beauty nakedly lying on her side, asleep on my bed. Several strands of her hair dropped down in her face and the rest of it lay gently against the pillow. The way the candlelight danced off of her hair made it shimmer, resembling liquid fire. One of her arms lay snug under her head while the other slender arm just barely draped off of her hip. There is no doubting it; I want her still.

Oh, what times we've had! During the passing weeks she had become more of a companion than a thing to me. It eased some of the tension between us, but I realized now that I never should have allowed this to happen. Loneliness is a disease and the first symptom of this disease happens to be isolation. You know, it wasn't like I could just get out around the general populace!

Actually I wouldn't if I could, the majority of the human race repulsed me. But living like a recluse wasn’t my idea of living either. Oh no, I needed to live and there was no way in hell that Voice was going to take that from me while air was still capable of filling my lungs. Even though I loathed the presence of most people, I still wasn't going to deny myself of having a little bit of fun every once in awhile at their expense. Unfortunately that was becoming extremely more difficult to do, with the turn of each new day. The incorporation of the "evil top ten", combined with having a bounty placed on my head had vastly contributed to the decrease in places I could show my face around. Damn Voice pulling the strings! This was my world! My world, and I'd been reduced to hiding and scurrying like an infectious insect from crevice to crevice.

I watched her sleeping eyelids flutter. She must be dreaming. I wondered what about and somewhat hoped hers were sweeter than what mine had been that night. Mine had been bleak, a terrifying experience to wake from, but her body nestled close to mine comforted me. However, I couldn't escape the feeling of being trapped by the omen of that guilt dream, guilt for things I could not change. I was aware that guilt would spill over into my future and I wished for it all to cease.

’But what of her future?’ I wondered, looking on this girl who had provided me with such company that I hadn't had in a very long time. It was so obvious that she was very inferior to me intellectually, but that didn't stop me from enjoying her in more ways than one. I admit that I had mused in playing endless psychological games with her, just to see her reaction. I had usually counteracted her reaction with a fitting reaction of my own. I knew I shouldn't, but it was so arduous straying from old habits!

It had felt real good to have someone around to pass the hours with that didn't annoy the hell out of me, like Tox and those morons that usually tagged along after me during those rare times I couldn't avoid them. Most of all, it was benevolent that her company had relieved me from playing the role of general. She was no longer afraid to lay her eyes on me, and she wasn't looking down on me like Voice had done, like they all had done. I almost felt what it was like to be at one with my own humanity again. Innocent to all the evil that could take shape, she looked past my intimidating appearance and prevented herself from seeing me as others did. She gave me a chance to show her another side.

I think she told me everything about her own life within the passing weeks. Her name is Daisy. How I hate that name! I wonder why on earth the most common names among Dwork females are floral related? It was beyond me, but it doesn't matter what her name is, after all a rose by any other name is still a rose.

Yesterday, Daisy informed me that she planned to introduce me to her brother and sister on the surface. She said that her parents had been taken "home, to the mother planet." A sad observation is that she believes this with all of her heart. Being the naive little Dwork that she is, sometimes I find myself compromised with debating on whether or not to crash her world. After all these years, how could they still believe science fiction to be religion? I could enlighten her, crash her entire world as she knows it so easily. Not all enlightenment is wonderful.

But the Baileys were gods, weren't they? Gods of a lesser branch... my gift to the world. And what did the world give me back in return? Nothing! Ungrateful world that devoured man's best friend to the point of extinction. Excessive, wasteful, hollow, with no regard for anything sacred. That is what they were! They didn't deserve this world! They didn't deserve the surface! What they did deserve was to wallow down here for as long as they remained, to die in the underground... my underground! But I rarely think about them, when it is just me and her wasting time in each other's arms. She has become my distraction from the world.

"I think we will just cancel that trip to the surface you have planned!" I told her regarding her plans yesterday.

She bit down on her lip raising her eyebrows slightly before she asked: "Why?"

I remember cupping her chin with my hand while staring into trusting eyes. "Take a good look around, Take a good look at me. Remember your initial reaction when you saw me? Now... answer your question!"

"You’re not so scary... I mean you were... but... you’re different... more colorful than other men!" she smiled.

I shot her an inquisitive glare. I would have enjoyed hearing her explain but decided not to push the subject.

"But, yeah, I see what your saying," she sighed.

"Good... maybe I can teach you some things after all."

She blushed: "You've already taught me some things. More than anyone else ever taught me."

A coy smile spread across her lips as she snuggled up against my shoulder.

And I had taught her things hadn't I? Such as what sexual pleasure I could give her. Of course, it had been easier breaking her in than I expected, but she informed me she had been familiar with herself. After all, sex hadn't been a secret among the Dworks or they would have died out a long time ago. And Daisy had a curious nature. It certainly cleared up a few lingering questions and also brought some delicious imagery to my mind. I envisioned her like I found her back down by the river, and fantasized about her touching herself, the shape, the movement of her mouth, the expression of ecstasy on her face and the wet droplets of water touching her skin.

Already fully dressed, I sat there studying the features of her sleeping face, debating on what I should do with her now that I had decided that it was time to return to my prime objectives. Sabotaging the Voice's goals by plundering what I could of her technological advancements was way up there on the list of objectives. Eventually I wanted to hijack and have the run of the mill down here, which I decided was a much more plausible objective if I could establish an alliance with the Baileys. Sure, they wouldn't be around if it wasn't for me, they are indebted to me, but did they care to recognize that? Hell no!

I was working on a way to settle into their good graces. I figured that it shouldn't be too complicated. I just had to make them believe that I could give them something that they wanted, just like I gave that girl what I made her believe that she wanted. The Baileys could continue their domination of the surface. I could conquer and lay claim to what was down here in the underground. Together I figured we would be a force to be reckoned with.

My eyes traced the curves of Daisy's body. Now what was I going to do with her? A recent failure reminded me that I don't need any distractions. And she was sheerly distracting, keeping me from advancing my schemes during the past few weeks. Any warlord in my predicament would have sold her into slavery where beauty fetches a handsome price, but I had no use for slavery. It might have seemed like a cruel fate to sell one's conquered enemies into slavery, but it wasn't wise. It was better just to kill them. Besides she wasn’t my enemy... thus far. No, selling her wasn’t an option.

I suppose there was always the option of killing her. Killing not only becomes addictive after awhile, but it is also an art. I imagined wrapping my hands around that long ivory neck I had had the pleasure of feeling against my lips. Those bare breasts I had kissed and sucked, peaking below me as if I was god above the various mountains and valleys of her body. A creation I had molded into being what it now was and would destroy with the same passion.

That was how it had made me feel, hadn't it? The adrenaline rush of power over my victim excited me as much as fucking her, if not even more so.

I approached sleeping beauty stretched out over my sheets, and bent down over her, shadowing her.

Killing her would be the easy way of getting rid of her, wouldn't it? I grabbed a sheet up in between my hands. I'm sure I would enjoy smothering her, but another part of my being didn’t want to kill her. A part of my very self cried out: "Stop! Not this one!"

So I spread that sheet out over her gently, to cover her nakedness, and backed away. That part of myself had won out and why not? I had already conquered her, hadn't I? I had won her and she was mine! To destroy her now would seem to me like shooting all the stars out of the night sky. All of my efforts to win the prize would have been in vain. When finding value in something, it became more then what it was. She was more than some girl I had defiled.

She thought that she loved me! Love! How ludicrous! She didn't love me; she couldn't possibly conceive what loving me was. I could, was, capable of love at one time, but now? Now? There was nothing else left in me for love that hadn't turned to hate. Daisy only thought she loved me because it was a part of my plan to make her want me, to seduce her into giving me what I wanted from her, and I succeeded. I received comfort between her legs and she convinced herself that she loved me. I suppose I should be really flattered that someone so beautiful, not wanting anything from me except for myself, could be so convinced that she was in love with me. After all, my skin... scarred and blemished. I wasn’t exactly every woman's idea of perfection. Most shrieked in terror and scattered from the mere sight of me.

Time after time, I had fallen into the same pit. It seemed like I was doing it yet again with Daisy. Last night I dragged myself in after an infuriating failure against Voice. I had set out with the aid of my mutant troops to sack and destroy a Voice research facility in an attempt to make off with something valuable. My informant Toco had been a rat, and the next time I saw him I would personally rip out his guts with my teeth and feed him to the cannibalistic rats that he so resembled! Needless to say it was a complete bust. Voice had relocated this particular facility without my knowledge, and the rat had been intentionally sent to seek me out at one of the holes I go to for the occasional drink.

Quint and his team, along with a few I wasn't familiar with, were waiting for us at the abandoned research facility, disguised as scientists. Before I knew it, we had walked into an ambush! We didn't get away with anything because of course there hadn't been anything to get; it had all been one big trap from the get go. I suffered a significant loss in casualties and barely made it out with my own skin. At least we messed up the joint real nice and pretty with a few dead voice team members. The floors were painted in my favorite color... voice team red.

After returning home to my lair, I removed my coat to better access the damage when Daisy came through the door dressed in one of the outfits I had managed to obtain for her. I turned, our eyes locked, I looked away momentarily because of the sharp pain in my side and when I looked back I saw her heart drop with concern. Grabbing me by the hand, she made me sit down despite my protests and lifted my shirt up. The expression on her face told me she was abhorred by the sight of my bruised ribs.

"Take your shirt off, I'll be back," she said as my eyes followed her to the bathroom.

Daisy returned after retrieving the medical aid bag and a damp cloth. She instructed me to lie down on the bed and to be honest I really didn't feel like arguing with her. Along with the aches and pains, tiredness had at last claimed me as she proceeded to treat my injuries. Her touch was so soft and gentle against the harsh sting, that it was soothing me, coaxing me to close my eyes. I drifted into a sleep of empty dreams where the pitch black void of nothing consumes consciousness. I pondered when I was awake that this must be what it was like to be dead, and suddenly oblivion didn't seem so bad.

A jolt sensation of nerve circuitry impulse rushed through me, bringing me back from my sweet oblivion. I awoke to find her hand rubbing, pushing, caressing my groin through my leather pants, her eyes staring up at me with an expression in them that told me she had purposely done this to awaken me. Bare fleshed, she hovered over the lower half of my body on all fours, placing her weight on her knees and hands.

"Feeling better?" she inquired of me, laying her face sideways against my hip, strumming her fingers against my groin and staring up at me hungry for my affections, reminding me of a moth's attraction to flame. I wasn't in the mood after my loss and I wished she would have just allowed me to dwell in sleep longer... I wanted my dreamless oblivion back.

"Better...Ha! I would feel better if what I had planned for tonight hadn’t backfired in my face!"

"What do you do down here, Creegan? How did this happen to you?" she asked, stroking my bruises softly.

Her questions shot through me like arrows penetrating my heart because I didn't want to answer them.

"Questions! Always more questions... You’re just full of them! Some things little girl, you don't want to know!"

"Fine... You’re not going to tell me, are you... Is it something bad? Are you..."

She didn't finish saying it. But I knew what she was going for. Is it something bad? Was I bad? Hell yeah, I was bad and I wasn't afraid to admit it. I wasn't afraid to see myself for who I am. I had denied myself this for years in trying to be someone who I wasn't, in trying to keep some aspect of some moral code others had forgotten long ago. I had denied my destiny and in doing so I had bought myself tremendous emotional pain for the sake of others. Others who now wanted me dead.

I was real bad, a real bad man, but I wasn't any worse than that bitch Voice. For her precious Resistance she had sacrificed more lives than I could ever feel responsible for taking. Her cause was an activity in futility that would only result in the death of countless fools who walked blindly in, believing her false promises and making everything more complicated for me. Sooner or later her cause would even result in her own death if I had anything to do with it.

"Just tell me you’re not and I'll believe it... I'll believe anything you say," she continued, which equally scared me as much as immensely boosting my ego. She climbed my body and laid her lips against my ear whispering: "Just say it!"

"And if I refuse to say one way or another?"

I was curious as to what her response would be. Her last words had chilled me; no one had ever had such faith in me before. It was a deluded faith and it was terrifying to me. To think that she would be ever so willing to cast everything aside she had known to be good and right to believe in my word, my false word. I could tell that she really knew the truth. She had intentionally convinced herself that I could make it right by just telling her a lie. She didn't want to see the truth about me, and I could only rationalize that maybe she realized she would have to hate me as much as the rest of the world did, once she allowed herself to see what she couldn't bring herself to face.

"That's okay with me... I just want to be with you."

"And it would comfort you to know that I'm good? You don't sound sure of yourself. You'd like to be able to unlock all of my secrets? You think you are the one to do this?" I chuckled at her gullibility. "Is that what you think? I don't think you'd like what you’d find," I hinted.

"It would comfort me... I would like to hear you say it... but I already know enough," she said, quickly kissing my nose before settling herself comfortably against my body, her head and neck snugly against my neck and chest.

"And?" I inquired. I had to know what she claimed to know.

"And?" One of her hands moved up the side of my neck, to the side of my face. She shifted, positioned herself so that she was straddling my hips and piercing my eyes with her own: "You are my heaven and my hell, whatever else you are... it is worth knowing whenever you want me to know."

Dammit to hell! Her words were tainting my mind! Just who the hell was seducing whom here? I had to get away from her. I had to distance myself from all this nonsense. This was one distraction that I didn't need right now. I grabbed her shoulders, moved her body over, and pushed her back on the bed where she stared up at me expecting me to take her at that moment. That was the hunger I saw in her eyes and yet she didn't understand that the reason I had moved her over was so that I could get up, which must have seemed spontaneous. I walked over to my chair, and leaned against it. This was all too much and I could feel a headache moving in on me. I sat and buried my face under my hands.

"Creegan... What's wrong... Come back to bed?" I heard her say when I moved my hands from my eyes. I saw her sitting up in the middle of my bed. So beautiful, the way she sat there beckoning me back as if she really wanted me. If she really knew, she'd run.

"C'mon, I know you’re tired, you don't have to do nothing... just come back to bed and let me love you."

I don't know why I did it, but I fulfilled her request.

Standing beside the bed I was uneasy. I wondered how I could have let all of this happen! Before I knew it she had grabbed one hand after another and slid my gloves off before pulling me down to sit on the edge of the bed. By my side of the bed I found her kneeling, where she lifted each one of my feet and pulled my boots off. Afterwards she proceeded to undo my pants. I helped her with that and she slid everything down and off into the floor. She pushed me down on the bed.

Leant over me, she tenderly kissed my lips and then trailed down my body leaving a broken path of wet heat. She grabbed one of my hands in hers and clasped her fingers in between my own. Her other hand rubbed against my inner thigh before grasping my balls and massaging them gently under her fingertips. It was arousing and once again I felt the sting of tension start to build up in them accompanied with tingling, as blood rushed to my dick. Holding my hand I watched her as she bent her face over my erection. She ran her tongue over the head of my dick before touching her lips to it in a teasing manner.

After caressing my balls, I felt each of her fingers sliver their way up my shaft. I felt them slink their way around it gently before she grasped me firmly in her hand. Her lips moved against the head of my dick as if she was licking an ice-cream cone. Her tongue lapped at the slit of the head. Up and down she moved her hand tightly around my cock, jerking me off. I was intoxicated with desire. At last she took the whole head into her mouth and the sensation of her heat was simply invigorating. I wanted more of that warmth and instinctively I thrust myself toward her mouth. She pushed my hips downward.

"No... Don’t. Just lay back. Don't do anything," she said, tightening her hand up around my dick as she swiped her lips back over the head of my cock. Her swollen lips resumed sucking, she pushed her mouth down taking more of the shaft into her mouth. I couldn't stand it, I had to have more of that same warmth, I had to feel completely submerged within it like I had been before and I wanted it now!

"I want inside of you!" I heard my voice say with quickened breath.

She withdrew her lips from sucking me off. Still holding my hand, she crawled slightly up my body lowering her glistening pussy against my cock. She proceeded to lower herself against me taking the head of my cock into her, emulating what she had previously done with her mouth. She rubbed herself against me, shifting her body back and forth against my cock until finally lowering the rest of herself down on top of me. The feel of the tightness and warmth of her enclosed around the shaft of my dick was divinely gratifying.

If only for this moment she was my queen, a goddess serving her weary king completely and without need for her own gratification. It was a sentiment I was greatly appreciating. For every other time we had been together I had made certain that she was satisfied at least once before I granted it to myself. My satisfaction had come from seducing her, but now the tables had turned and she had not wanted me to do anything other than lie here. She started to rock her hips against me drawing a few quiet moans from my lips. I thought that I couldn't indulge enough of her at that moment. Through deep breaths my lips were hungry for her kiss, and striving for the taste of her breath. She refused to let go of my hand and continued to ride me at a zealous pace. The greatest rapture filled my soul and I couldn't hold back any longer. I came against the warm tight depth of her. Filling her, I felt completely drained but comforted and satisfied.

She collapsed against my body; her sweet breath warmed my cheek. She whispered against my face: "Sweet Dreams!" At last releasing our interlocked hands, she stroked the other side of my face and kissed my lips.

But they weren't sweet dreams. I was awakened this morning after dreaming of past carnage, of my first kill and I couldn't get the blood off of my blood soaked hands. Shards of a mirror lay broken and in each piece I was condemned. Her hand, still against my face; I lifted and kissed it, before I laid it down on the mattress. I sat forward, freezing in my own sweat. Something had drawn my attention, a beeping sound. It was my communications device and it had gone off from inside my jacket. After getting up and searching for it I discovered that one of my lieutenants, Morog, had traced down the bastard that had set me up. He had him held up on a level and I told him to notify me when he had actually got his hands on him. I would personally see to him.

***

So I sit here waiting for Morog to contact me and attempt to reach a decision regarding what I should do about Daisy. I watch her eyes flutter wide open and immediately they have sought me out. Once they find me, I watch her yawn, stretch, and then she childishly giggles while rolling out of bed. "Good morning!" she says before taking off into the bathroom where I hear her turn the water on in the shower, then a few minutes later I listen to the beat of water hitting against and running off her flesh.

She is a butterfly among insects, beauty like that belongs above ground where the sun can kiss its skin. After the effect of this crush wears off, I figure it is only a matter of time before she discovers how miserable she'll be down here with me anyway. So I decide that once I get back from taking care of that rat faced traitor, I will take Daisy back to the surface. I will make her believe that I changed my mind about meeting her siblings and once we get up there I will let her get ahead of me. Then I will simply disappear from her life as sudden as I appeared in it. I will write her a letter explaining why it must be like this. I'll make her see the truth, even if she hates me for it and I will leave her with orders that she is not to go off with any Baileys. I don't think she could ever find her way back here without me. It is the perfect solution.

I watch her come out wrapped in a robe and stroll over to the closet where she grabs something randomly and slips it on. She turns to me and strikes a pose: "How's it look? You like?"

"Of course, I picked it out for you, didn't I?"

"Some reason I don't buy that, Creegsy!" she says, putting her hands on her hips and smoothing out the vinyl skirt.

"Creegsy?"

What was this? She is coming up with pet names for me now?

She winks and turns around grabbing a pair of matching red and white knee high boots. I watch her slide them on and then proceed to the vanity where she starts applying makeup, when I get another beep.

It has to be Morog and I establish a link.

"Morog? Is this you? Do you have him?"

"Yes, sir... Got him... Request to send coordinates," Morog's voice hissed.

"Send away!" I chuckle as I watch Daisy try to figure out the automated hair stylist with varying results.

I notice the coordinates just happen to be on an abandoned level not to far from here, which means I can get in and back here sooner. Then I'll do what I have to concerning the girl.

"Morog... Be expecting me soon!"

"Oh, yeah! It's time for some payback!" I find myself saying as I think once again about Toco's betrayal.

Daisy turns, giving me a suspicious look. "Payback? Does this have to do with last night?"

Standing up, I nod: "That's right!"

I leave the room and a few minutes later I hear her following behind me.

"Don't go!" she catches up to me in the hall. A few feet away from the main door she throws her arms around my neck, stopping me in my tracks.

"Please!" she pleads.

"I have too... It is unavoidable!" I find myself saying harshly.

"But why?" she asks.

"To keep the respect of my army. To keep them committed, I have to make an example out of this indolent cur. It will send a message to anyone out there who would betray me."

"Why can't you just leave it alone?"

"I just can't!" I remove her hands. She can't possibly understand why I have to do what I must.
This is one of the reasons she doesn't belong with me.

I turn and face her before leaving: "Why don't you pack some of your things. When I get back... we'll take that trip to the surface... Alright?"

"But I thought you didn't want to do that!" she reminds me.

"I don't... but I'll do it for you." I grin at her and hope she buys my sincerity.

Reaching the coordinates, I notice everything seems quiet, too quiet. I engage my energy shield and fire up my gauntlet. Unfortunately I didn't grab any extra weapons or shields besides the ones I have tucked away here and there in my jacket. My gut tells me something is wrong, but I am sure it’s just nerves. Walking through the door into an open room I see Morog standing out in the open with that scum bucket Toco. Suddenly I hear something behind me, and turn ready to fire my gauntlet when it just happens to be Daisy.

"How did you get here?" I blurt out at her in a hateful tone.

I watch her hold up her wrist and point to the gauntlet: "You forgot this one!"

"Well then... seeing how you found your way here... you can find your way back... Go home!"

"I can't! I just followed this blinking thing here to this other blinking thing, which I thought was you... And it did turn out to be you... Here you are!" she smiles.

I tell myself she couldn't have shaft fell, she must have taken the long way around to get here.

"Are you telling me you don't know how to go back the same way you came?" I inquire.

Nervously she nods. "I'm afraid to fall without you."

"Fine! Just go wait on me out there!" I turn her around and point to where I want her to wait. "I'll be back with you after I take care of business!"

I watch her where I stand start to walk off to where I instructed her to wait.

"Oh, and Daisy?" I wait until she turns around and is looking at me.

"Whatever you hear... Stay away from here... I will not be too long."

The sooner I can get her back to the surface the better off we both will be. I just don't need the hassle, and she is going to get herself killed following me.

Approaching Morog I have to congratulate him: "Bravo! I'm in awe of a job well done!"

Looking around I wonder where Morog has stationed the subordinates. Why doesn't he have anyone else with him?

"Morog, where're the mutants?"

He responds: "I tracked him on my own, Creegan."

I nod: "Very well."

I stare Toco down, face to face, and suddenly I have an insatiable need to see him die.

"Toco! I have something here that I think you’re most deserving of!" I slide the knife from the hidden sheath compartment located on my jacket. Laying the blade against his temple, I run it down to his throat leaving a thin bleeding cut.

"And that isn't half of it!" I chuckle.

"Drop it, Creegan!" a voice shouts out at me, startling me. I recognize that voice immediately and slash Toco's throat wide open. Dying, his body drops to its knees.

I know that voice! And I know something else before I turn to look his way. I have been double crossed once again. My blood boils and I can hardly think when I turn to see Quint and his team standing there with their gauntlets aimed at me. It is then that I fully realize the reason I have no backup. Morog and Toco had been in on it together. My eyes directly connect with Morog's and he draws a blade on me. Smart son of a bitch knows the gauntlets will not do the job until they wear my energy shield down. There is no harming me with gauntlets until then and he knows it! He swings his blade toward my gut, slashing air instead. I have to dodge a second advance from him as my shield absorbs gauntlet fire from Voice's little bitches.

I hear Lara's voice direct him: "Get out of the way! We can handle this! Your job's done!"

"I'm going to kill him!" Morog grunts, lunging forward, making another attempt to stick me. He knows me, but evidently not well enough. He knows now that he is a walking dead man as long as I breathe. Again he lunges and this time around I grab his wrist when he swings the blade around.

I stick my knife into his gut: "So you thought it was open season on Creegan!" I feel his warm blood seep through my gloves as I twist the blade.

"You see you were gravely mistaken!" I tell him as I pull the knife out.

"How quickly the predator becomes the prey! Aye Morog?" I swing his body around so that I can use it as an extra shield against the excessive gauntlet fire coming my way.

Quint inches closer; he thinks I am going to allow his team to get close enough to jump me? I push Morog's body toward him and attempt to make a break between the three of them. They have attempted to circle me in, to trap me between their gauntlet fire. They continue firing their gauntlets on me and I am more than happy enough to return the favor. I realize I am going to have to find a way out of here and quick. I don't have the full firepower that I need to fight them at this instance and I know my shield will not hold out much longer. I decide that if I make it out of this one I am going to have to modify my energy shield.

Quint orders his team to hold their fire.

"Surrender, Creegan!" he demands. "No, Voice, he hasn't surrendered, but we have him surrounded. I don't think he is going anywhere, what do you want me to do?"

They hold their positions around me, aiming their gauntlets, ready to fire if I flinch a muscle. I feel like a trapped animal and suspect they will be closing in on me. Dammit to hell! Why did they have to pick such a damned open area! There is nothing to shield myself behind when this shield fails me. Just all this abandoned useless, empty space. However, something has just caught my eye. On the wall back behind the team is a power grid, it is located not far from the door I'd just entered through a few minutes earlier. If I could hit it there is a good chance that the lights would go out in here. Might provide a well enough diversion for me to make my escape.

The problem is hitting it; it is back too far away from where I am positioned to shoot it accurately. If I don't hit it accurately the first time, they will figure out what I am up to. Then I have no doubt in my mind that they will advance on me with full force. I have survived being captured before, but it isn't anything I am going to accept easily. One thing that time has taught me is that it isn't cowardice to live long enough to fight another day.

"I'll try to bring him in alive." I hear Quint respond to Voice.

Voice always wants me alive, but she never writes, calls, or ever comes by for a visit. I am starting to wonder just what she does want from me. Everyone wants something and I had killed her precious Carter, hadn't I? So if it was vengeance she wanted, why not just throw me to the dogs those times before? Or better yet, why not just command Quint and his masochist friends here to kill me now? Oh, but it is so much more complicated than that, isn't it? She wants something, needs something from me, and one of these days I am going to find out what it is she really wants. Unless, of course, she is only keeping me alive because she still harbors a fondness for me deep down in her heart somewhere, and that is highly doubtable!

I study each member of the team while trying to decipher who the weakest among them is. Lara might be physically smaller than the other two, but she is by no means the weakest. I decide that the weakest has to be Court, because in previous battles I've noticed that unlike Quint, Court can't keep his cool when something happens which he isn't expecting. Unlike Lara, Court doesn't take Quint's orders well.

So while Quint is taking dictation from Voice, I decide it is time to make my move. I take a running go into Court almost knocking him off his feet. I shuffle around him and once I'm past him Lara immediately opens fire on me. I get a little further when I feel someone grab my arm from behind. It is Court and he attempts to restrain me when I stab my knife into his thigh. I hear him cry out like a little girl and I am slung against the floor. It is a shame that my blade is still stuck in his thigh but I'll have to leave it. I flip to my feet as quickly as I can and pace myself toward my destination. I find myself in range and lift my arm to fire my gauntlet toward the power grid, when suddenly my shield fails from the impact of the firepower and I am hit by Lara's low beams in the shoulder and side, which cause me to miss the damned power grid. I duck down in pain, but raise my gauntlet to attempt it again.

"Alright, Creegan, don't make this any harder on yourself than it is!" Quint says as he advances toward me aiming his gauntlet.

Arrogant Bastard! How dare he think that I am making any of this hard on myself? It was Voice, himself and his entourage that was making it hard on me! I certainly wasn't shooting at myself here!

I find myself in a sticky situation, I can either shoot at the power grid and give them a reason to hit me with something harder or I can aim the gauntlet at one of them and attempt to keep them busy with talk until I can come up with something else.

"You don't know what she's doing, do you? Voice! This is between me and her. It doesn't have anything to do with you!" I retort, aiming my gauntlet at him as I rise to my feet.

Lara helps a limping Court over a few feet to where me and Quint are having our showdown. The three of them advance further on me, with their weapons, backing me into a wall.

"There's nowhere to go, Creegan." Quint reminds me. It is always like Quint to spoil the fun.

"Let’s just shoot him!" Lara suggests, obviously trying to get a rise out of me so that she could shoot me.

"Not if we don't have too!" Quint looks at her and then back at me: "Hear that, Creegan?"

I know he isn't trying to use reverse psychology on me. What is Voice training them for these days?

"Really, Quint... I'm not deaf... I hear you loud and clear."

Court just has to speak up: "Has anyone besides Lara noticed that I have a knife protruding from my leg?"

Holding my side in pain, I really can't help myself as I start to chuckle at what he
just said. If anything, stabbing him in the thigh had been the highlight of my morning. I lower my gauntlet because I have to face it, it is over for the time being and having to accept defeat at the moment hurts worse than my shoulder and side combined. I will just have to find a way out while they are escorting me to a prison level and if that fails, well... I've found ways out of prison before.

"OH, shut up YOU" Suddenly Court flings his gauntlet up in my face: "I'm not playing! If you want to keep your head, Clown... You'll shut the fuck up now!" he says, standing a few feet away. He really has that look in his eyes. I could get him to fire on me, I know I could if I really wanted to provoke him further.

"Court, put your gauntlet down...Voice wants him alive," Quint says while binding my wrists together.

Court still aims his gauntlet at my head as if he hasn't heard a word Quint said.

"Court... Disengage!" Quint orders again.

Daisy, who I had forgot about during all the commotion, comes charging through the door.

"Let him go!" she commands as she raises the gauntlet at them.

"Daisy... d..."

Before I can finish saying "Daisy don't!" Court fires his gauntlet at her.

Her shocked eyes fall on me. They stare up at me from the hard floor after her body falls over. She hadn't even activated a shield. Lara confirms that she is dead.

"Of course she is dead! Dumb fuck over here hit her with some high power radiation laser beam that he intended for me!"

"Quiet! Creegan... not one more word!" Quint says, obviously in a poor attempt to try to calm the situation.

"I didn't know... I just reacted! Quint! She had a weapon!" Court protests.

"She didn't even know how to use it!" I break away from Quint's grasp, charging into Court's gut, knocking us both off our feet.

Numb, I lie here against the floor not wanting to get up. I would stay here, against the floor if they would leave me alone for a while. Lara and Quint lift me up by each arm. Quint tells me to "Come on" and says a few more things that I am not really paying attention to. Court will possibly get a slap on the hand for not following his team captain's orders; if he were one of mine I would have him shot! I'm betting I'll get the chance to do that one day... despite that minor technicality.

They walk me past her broken body, which is cast against the floor like a butterfly that had its wings ripped off. She was that fragile. That easy to die. Although I had not wished to kill her, there she lies, a victim of circumstance, as consequence for caring for me. Everybody who had ever been a part of my life either hated me or was dead. I am alone in the world and I bargained I would die that way...some day. It is my fault that I can't seem to wash the blood from my hands. I can admit it because I know who I am and I'm not making excuses for it. I guess now I will go back to the same place in which I had been before she made me feel something other than disgust and anger.

But I don't know if I can rise from the ashes the same as I have in the past, because my soul screams it is dying. I remember the way she looked this morning sleeping and I remember she told me not to go. This is what it feels like to lose.

Quint wants me to come with them quietly. I hope they are happy for getting what they want... while it lasts.

Voice may have won this battle... but the real war is well on its way.

One day she will know what it feels like to be defeated.

---CreeGaN

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