-1-
I was kind of starting to admire the Graces.
After a week of being in the Sprawl, I take myself to The Monte Carlo and visit a surprisingly serious, but very talented 22-year-old cyborg named Pretty Boy.
The lighting is shitty, Pretty Boy is high as fuck, but just like my first tattoo and I don’t feel a damn thing.
***
The crowd in the Luxor screams in delight as the bass pumps and the lights start to strobe in a cheap glitter effect. It’s a small crowd; a rather exclusive party, but there is enough energy in the room to light an entire block.
For once El isn’t behind the bar, he’s walking around handing out the complimentary drinks and exchanging lascivious glances with every woman in the place.
The dance floor is filled with small crush of people who are mostly anonymous to me, but I get a feeling that will change. Sara is on the very edge of the dance floor, dancing with Luce in that way mothers and sons dance, nearly seven feet apart. It's cordial, but I know in a few minutes they’ll go back to the waring.
Rayne and Ivy are sitting on the bar, offering champagne toasts to passersbys. I catch Sara and Ivy exchange the looks that come from having the type of friendship I’ll probably never have.
Jean and Minnow are in the center of it all, chest to chest,
hip to hip moving to the beat in a way that is all body and rhythm. They both
crave attention and touch, but this crowd is so used to them and they all but
blend in.
Hands waving. Obsidian jewelry sparkling.
I watch them all feeling out of place.
El comes in between the Dories and gestures that he wants Jean to take him shot for shot. The laughing men head to the bar arm in arm and--despite still being a little bruise and battered---Minnow holds the center of the dance floor on her own until she spots me.
I make a quick run for it before she asks me to dance. I don't need attention. I'm halfway to the door, but she catches up to me as I crack open the backdoor. I keep going and slip out to the back—the place where I have memories now. Memories of getting stopped by a conscriptor, a memory of being chased by Mjollner street samurai.
-2-
It’s nearly pitch black out.
The RLA propaganda hologram that usually lit the street had been hacked so many times that they just took it down.
Minnow follows me outside, her heels clicking in circles
against the pavement. She squeezes my upper arm and I jerk away because it’s
still a little sore from the tattoo.
“We did it,” she says. “Rayne is happy. You should be happy.”
We did do it. No guns, no bullet, no threats. Just the truth.
Sara knew something I’m just now finding out. Some things are better kept secret because the truth will just keep fucking people up. The truth about the Peace Summit was it was just a transaction.
I sit on one of the concrete steps and look at the starless sky. Minnow stands and leans her legs against me.
“What’s your plan ?,” she asks
I shake my head She knew the deal. I’d told her during the days she spent in bed recovering.
“I’m stuck here,” I remind her.
“I know. I mean..okay, well…What about after that?,” she asks.
“After?”
“Yeah, after all the people who want you at Tempus are dead. After Rayne dies. After Rayne’s great-great-great grandson dies and the cartel collapses.”
“What the fuck are you talking about ?”
“I heard,” she says. “I heard Blackbird when I was getting my finger replacement. You can live forever. You have eternity to plan for.”
I stand up in front of her. Her shoes make it so we’re nearly eye level. I reach for her waist and pull out that damn empty pistol she is still carrying around.
“Why don’t you put bullets in this thing ?,” I ask
“It’s like two hundred years old.” she says to me like I’m an idiot. “They don’t make bullets for it anymore.”
“Maybe I’m the same way,” I say. “In 200 years who will be able to fix me ? Who will have part for me if I breakdown ?”
“You're sentient. You’ll plan ahead,” she tells me. “You’ll learn about science-y stuff and make sure people always make parts for you.”
The thought makes me smile, she has no idea how much I suck at science.
“Fine smartass,” I say. “ Maybe that’ll work for a while. But what about in a million years when the sun gets closer to earth ?,”
“Well, you’ll prepare and make a suit that will withstand that. You’ll also now have the job of saving some piece of humanity. You’ll figure something out by then.”
“What about in six billion years, when the sun goes out ?,” I ask. “When everything dies, but me. What then ?”
She pauses.
"Forever doesn’t exist,” I say. “I don’t have forever, Minnow. I’m just working on the now. All I have is right now.”
“Well, at least the enjoy the now with me," she says and rethininks it. " By which I mean have one dance.”
I still don’t trust her. Not completely but, it’s just a dance and she is a captivating partner.
One dance turns into three and as the music is starting up for the fourth song I nearly forget the most important thing I need to tell her.
“You were right about the whole needing a vice to cope with all this shit speech,” I shout in her ear over the electronic bass.
“Shit, can’t believe you can remember that conversation !,” she yells back into my ear.
“Well, I do. And I figured out my vice,” I say and she smiles.
“And ?,” she says
The thing that will always be my weakness is honesty. She’ll never know my real name and most of these people will never know what I really am.
I gesture to the mirrored walls where there is reflection of us dancing. I take off my jacket and wrap my arms around her so she can make out the word inked across me arm while we dance.
Veritas.
The End
Okay, guys so you can start scrolling down to the A/N I put at the bottom of the page, so you wouldn't realize how short this chapter is. Now, scroll !
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A/N
And with that we will very, very, very appropriately (It will make sense very soon) transition in to HMLIS. You guys it's been a journey...I looked back at my word docs and I created chapter 1 on February 2012 ! Thank you all for indulging this little reboot
Also, Yes, I did manage to title drop both versions of the serial in one chapter.
Oh, look an FAQ (click here !)