Chapter Text
1. Show Me The Way!
Before Gwendolyn there was The Stalk. And before The Stalk, well, there was me. You better get comfortable, because boy oh boy do I have a story for you. This is about how The Will became who you know him to be. You can thank me for that later, but for now, I suggest you just listen.
My name is The Way and the story I’m about to tell you is straight from the horse’s mouth, you can take this to the bank (though I’m not sure what the exchange rate is so maybe you should hold onto it until it’s worth a bit more).
To begin with my story, I will start with that fact that I am not a political man, in fact I want to be as far away from politics as possible. The truly funny thing about this is that, well, to be completely uninvolved in fight between who has better politics and what should happen to society as we know it and basically just having everyone leave you alone is to get right in the middle of it all.
First, there is a planet called Landfall. Godawful name if you ask me, but then again nobody did. Bastards, I could have come up with something far more entertaining. Most of the population on this planet has wings, and those who don’t are kind of treated like second class citizens (through politically correct means of course, after all, we don’t want anyone having grounds to start a revolution). Landfall has one moon, this moon is called Wreath, and its population is mostly people with horns. Another shitty name with another group of rude ass people, like the rest of the damn universe.
Now, one thing about Landfall and Wreath.
They are constantly killing each other.
They’ve been at war for ages, probably since they had the technology to go and beat each other up, but I like to think that before that everyone would still shake their fists at each other and stick out their tongues.
Of course if they actually destroyed one, life would drastically change on their planet/moon and honestly everyone would probably die. So instead, they decided to start fighting on other planets so they didn’t have to deal with actual war on their land anymore. Why screw up your own life when you can screw up everyone else’s?
You see, politics is mostly about who’s got deeper pockets and better connections, and the best way to show off is to pay someone to kill your opponent while you sip coffee in your underwear, safe at home in your kitchen.
That’s where I came in.
I’m a Freelancer, my job is to do freelance work (good description isn’t it?). More often than not, I take out hits. Our story begins with me in the minor league, I go after cheating spouses and bosses that make their lives hell. Occasionally I’ll get a smaller politician whose pockets aren’t deep enough for the big names, but it gets me what I want. Nobody blames the Freelancer for the kill, well not usually, they blame the guy who pays him. The best way to avoid politics is to be in the middle, as I said. I take jobs from horns and wings and all sort of other creatures who call up my agent. I’ve killed my fair share of important people, and nobody cares. Mostly because I am just collecting my check, nobody wants to sway me to their side through false promises; they just write more zeros than the last guy.
But like I said, I’m minor league, nothing big yet.
But I had plans to change that.
“Lying,” The cat snarled at me.
I jumped and could feel my cheeks heat up, caught in the act by a talking cat? “What the hell?” I blurted out when I was finally able to talk.
“She’s a Lying Cat, she can tell when someone’s lying. Like you are right now,” The man, The Will, said calmly.
He was tall, probably over six feet, he had light gray eyes and his head was shaved. I’ve seen pictures of him with hair; he must have grown it out sometime after we parted ways but before he met The Stalk. I’m just glad he shaved it again, he always looked much better like this. But at the time, the most important part was his name. The Will.
I laughed nervously and scratched the back of my neck, “Okay, okay, you caught me, My name isn’t Ralph and I’m not here to sell magazines,” I dropped the smile and said, more seriously, “You’re Mister The Will, yeah?”
“Just The Will,” He said coolly.
I shrugged, “Sorry, still new, haven’t read the orientation material yet.”
“New?” He raised an eyebrow curiously.
“Yeah, to Freelancing. I was going to be a spy—”
“Lying.” The cat growled from his side, she was a big ass cat, came up to his hip, and ugly too. Hairless and a gray blue color with big eyes and a silver and gold armor like thing on her back. I wasn’t a big fan of cats anyways, but this one was odd.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was going to end up doing some job I hated for people I hated and I decided why not take control of my life? So here I am, taking control,” If you keep it vague enough it’s not really lying, right? I guessed not because the cat remained silent.
“Outside of my house,” The Will seemed unimpressed. “I don’t even know your name.”
I grinned widely. “Call me The Way. And I asked around a bit and they say you’re up and coming in the field, and I want to up and come too. So I figure, we stick together for a bit we’ll make a bigger name, get jobs done faster, make some cash, maybe get us recognized for our outstanding achievements. Build our resumes as a team.”
He looked at Lying Cat who made an awful meowing noise that he seemed to understand and then looked to me, “I don’t see why not.”
The Will I knew wasn’t so against having a partner. I guess that’s just one of the many things I would screw up for him during our time together.
And just like that we were a team, taking hits together. Of course the money wasn’t as good when you had to split it in half, but we got more jobs, so it balanced out.
It was one of these jobs that would change everything about our partnership. In fact, it would change a lot about us as people. And once again, I’m mostly at fault.
“No way,” The Will snapped.
“Come on, look at this offer, that’s a lot of cash and someone with that much money to spend can get us noticed. It would be worth it! Even Cat agrees with me!”
“Lying,” She said lazily as she groomed herself.
“Okay so maybe not, but look at this! And we’d be doing a good deed! There’s no losing to this situation, really. I think we should take the job!” I was holding the information in my hand, and it didn’t look bad at all, a simple rescue mission. Four adopted daughters had been kidnapped and it was later found out that they had been sold into some sex industry and were not being rented out to men with fat wallets and perverted minds. This high paying job was just to get them back to the family in one piece. What could be wrong about saving girls from people like that and just so happening to get paid for it?
“Come one, something isn’t right here. First off, why not call the police? Why get a Freelancer?”
I shrugged, “Maybe the police are incompetent and can’t handle it. Maybe the police have been using the girls too, wouldn’t be the first time.”
“Okay but this much money? I don’t buy it, something is off,” He crossed his arms over his chest, his blue cloak was almost touching the floor and I could see a sliver of the red inside.
“I would sell my soul to save my kids from something like that; if these parents have the money of course they’ll pay it!” Odds are they probably felt at least partially responsible too, and I wasn’t going to turn down their guilt money to save a kid from that. “Come on, this is twice as much as my share from the last three jobs combined! This will put us in the big leagues!”
“I said no,” The Will has always been stubborn. But he’s never been so stubborn that he couldn’t be persuaded.
I held up the picture that came with the rest of the information on the job. It was the four girls standing together, all smiling. “Could you tell these girls that you don’t want to save them? Could you tell them that you don’t care enough to save them? Because the only reason I could see turning down this job, rescuing girls who are,” I checked the papers again, “seven, eight, ten, and twelve, is that you are more willing to kill someone than save them. So, could you tell them to their faces that you would rather see them trapped in the sex industry than you would back home with their families?” Okay, maybe I was acting like a dick, but the money was good, damn good, and it really was a good cause. I mean, rescuing kids from the sex industry? I may have said some not so great stuff, but can you blame me?
The Will stepped forward, his eyes glaring down at me. I raised my chin and met his eyes with the same intensity. We stood inches from each other, neither willing to back down.
“I don’t want to take this job,” He growled.
“Lying.” L.C. said calmly, getting up and stretching lazily, her tongue curling as she yawned. It had been months since I first saw her, and while I still thought she was horrendous looking, it was a cute kind of ugly.
The Will glared down at her then turned away from me and strode to the small kitchen. He opened up the fridge and grabbed a bottle of something; I didn’t care enough to look. “We’re not taking the job,” He sounded determined, but Lying Cat seemed to know differently.
“Lying,” She said again, and I swear she would have rolled her eyes if she could have.
He looked between us for a long time before stalking off to the controls for the ship. “What are the damn coordinates?”
If I hadn’t been there to persuade him, Lying Cat would never have had to say he was lying, and more importantly, The Will never would have gone. I’ve said it before, but I’m going to say it again. This was all my fault. And I’m so sorry.
The Will’s ship reminded me of a seed wrapped in leaves, it’s a brown ball and when we’re traveling through space it’s four curved, green, panels encased the pod, and when we’re landing they flared out, like a budding flower or some nature stuff. I’m not really sure, I failed those classes. I just know it looked naturey.
Well naturey with a propeller on top of it.
We landed in the late afternoon, the sun would probably be setting soon but we already knew where we were going. It was a small brothel, well small compared to the rest of the galaxy. There were entire planets dedicated to sex, Sextillion being the most famous, but this was just a small city on some shitty nowhere planet. That’s how they got around a lot of regulations, nobody cared about a nowhere city on a nowhere planet.
We had a dark landing, no lights, real quiet, far enough away from the city that no one would notice. The city, which I would later find out would be called Sextropolis (an obvious rip-off of Sextillion), was about a 45 minute walk, nothing for a couple rugged men like us.
I suppose this is a good time to talk about myself, after all at this point we’re just walking.
You see, back when our little story takes place, I was 22 and The Will was 24, but this was a long time ago. How long ago I’m not sure, I’ve lost track of time since then, but I keep my eye on him. He used to use those two years to try and boss me around. And, well, sometimes it worked. Two years was a bigger difference back then.
So, at 22 I was gorgeous, to be fair I’ve always been gorgeous, it’s a gift really. There are some gods out there who saw this little baby getting pushed out and thought, “Man, this guy is going places, he deserves some looks to go with that.” I wasn’t as tall as The Will, I was only about 5’4”, but don’t let my height fool you, I had a lot going for me in other ways. For instance, I was fit, good muscles but not weirdly bulging you know? Dark hair that was a little shaggy at this point and in need of a trim, but the last time I trusted my hair to The Will he’d nearly shaved me bald and I wasn’t ready to relive that. I had silvery green eyes with a little tint of blue around the pupil, they were a lot like my dad’s. Dark stubble often found its way on my face but I never let it get much more than that. Oh, and my ass. That was definitely one of my better features.
I wore a red button up shirt with a slim black tie and black jeans. And for jobs like this I would wear a dark blazer so that my dagger that rested against the small of my back remained hidden. My holsters and other handy pouches attached to a belt that was slung across my hips. The Will wore something a little more practical, a white, cotton long sleeved shirt with tan shoulders and a cape that was basically impervious to everything, I’ve watched people shoot, like real bullets, and they just bounced off. Fire? Nice try. This damn thing was something special. I didn’t have anything fancy like that. He also had a lance, it looked like the metal handle of an old fashioned lance, like really old, the kind of thing you only saw in movies these days, but it was only about the size of my hand. Until you wanted to use it, and then the damn thing shot out like a bullet, curving and going as far as you needed it to. Yeah, he always got the fun toys. But while he had toys, I had something a little different.
See, horns, those losers from Wreath, can use magic. Wings, the losers from Landfall can’t. And there’s a little known fact about my species, we can use magic. Of course the rules are different, horns or moonies or whatever you decide to call them today, have to have special ingredients for spells. Secrets, snow, hell I’ve even heard of dragon semen (imagine getting that!) being used for spells. Me? Nah, we just do our thing, snap our fingers, bam, magic. But we have limits. It’s minor magic. I can heal a papercut, unlock my car door if I left the keys inside, that kind of thing. But I’m also really good at conjuring small things. Of course it takes up energy, a lot for something so small, so I don’t use it so often. In fact, it’s basically useless in this field of work, but the point was I had it.
Other than that, my species looked pretty human, other than our gorgeous eyes, usually and pretty silvery shade of a color and some fancy birthmarks. They’re the same color as our eyes, a color tinted with shiny silver. I dated this chick whose eyes and marks were like this silvery metallic red color. I should have known she was gonna be a bitch.
I have a bright circle around my Adam’s apple with a thin line going straight down my chest and ending at a point about my belly button. I like to think of it like those signs telling you what direction to go. Three black dots in that little circle kind of make up a little crescent, I’m sure they meant something but I never had anyone to ask. This damned war killed a lot of people, including my family, and after that I was taken to some camp with a bunch of people from planets all over. I wasn’t sure who ran the camp, I didn’t really care. But eventually the other side came in, acting like heroes when they were just as guilty, and ‘freed’ us. A lot of people went with them, but I stayed on my home planet. It wasn’t long till some pirates found me, and they needed a kid like me. Our magic naturally acts like a translator, we can understand any language, and luckily for everyone around me, it’s contagious. While I’m around we all understand each other with no problems at all. And they needed someone who could help them get the message to whatever village they were walking into to give up all their valuables. But that’s another story I guess.
We should probably get back to the real story.
If they had a designated greeter, they weren’t around. We walked in without a problem, not that I expected them to stop us at the gates and ask if we were here to steal some children back from them.
So we walked into a bar, where else would one get their information?
The bartender was a fat, green, furry man. For all the hair on the rest of his body, there was a surprisingly little amount on the top of his head. And he looked just perverted enough to get me answers.
“Hey, keep L.C away from everyone. Don’t talk to anyone. There are going to be quite a few liars around here,” I murmured to The Will.
“And what do you plan to do? Have a drink? I want off of this planet right now; we don’t have time for you partying away your lusts.” He crossed his arms over his chest and cast a disgusted look across the room. He also used to be a lot more straight laced than he is now. He didn’t even smoke back when I knew him. Maybe I did one or two good things for him.
“No, I’m going to get us some answers, but it will be a hell of a lot easier without your walking lie detector outing me at every chance she gets. Now just wait outside and don’t talk to anyone. Maybe put some earmuffs or something on her. In case you haven’t noticed, this place is sanctuary to liars.” Ah, felt like home, not that I was going to say that out loud.
The Will didn’t look too happy, and L.C. looked even more pissed off than he did, but that didn’t really bother me. You see, if I were to call L.C. and I friends she would probably yowl the loudest Lying I’d ever heard in my life, maybe even toss in a few other words for once. I’m pretty sure if I said we were friends it would sound a lot like, “You fucking lying liar. Friends? With you? LYING. Lie. Liesssssss.” And she’d probably go back to The Will’s side and pretend nothing happened. So, to avoid that from ever happening, I’m going to try and be as honest as I can.
Lying Cat and I? We just weren’t friends. So I found it hard to care that I damaged her ego.
After they walked outside, I strode up to my ugly bartender and asked what he recommended.
“Do you mean to drink or to fuck?” He asked gruffly, not looking up.
I smirked, “Both.”
“Depends on what you like.”
“Something strong to drink and something,” I paused, leaning in closer and dropping my voice to a whisper, “sweet to fuck.”
He looked up and I watched his eyes narrow, carefully judging me. “I’ve never seen you around here before.” He stated and I widened my silvery eyes innocently. “We’ve got some cute ladies around here, but you’re good looking, you don’t need to pay to just get a woman. You want something you have to pay for. So why don’t you be straight with me, boy?”
I almost made a joke about how I’d rather be gay with him, but that would have been a damned lie for many reasons, chief one being I didn’t even want to buy a drink if it came from him, another being I wasn’t gay. Wasn’t straight either. I liked boys, girls, and everything in between and outside of that range.
“Sorry, this is my first time ever coming somewhere like here,” I laughed nervously and scratched the back of my neck like I was edgy and insecure about this whole thing. “You see, I have certain tastes and I thought that you could help me out here. I mean if I can find it anywhere, it’ll be here.”
He still looked suspicious but he nodded me on, “What kind of tastes you got that sent you here to find it?”
“Innocent tastes.”
And that’s all it took.
He gave me directions to a Mama Jal, a woman in charge of one of the many brothels in this area. Getting to her required going through some very tiny streets and dark alleys. You know there are alleys off of alleys? Like you’re walking down one alley and you can go to a different alley? I’m not sure if that’s normal, but that’s what was here. Also, be careful because someone almost took a piss on my head from four flights above. Maybe carry an umbrella with you.
I looked at the instructions that had been given to me to get into this brothel. I looked down at L.C. and then to The Will. “Let’s just keep everything vague enough so that we’re not lying, because this little asshole will sell us out in no time,” I looked pointedly at Cat who just raised her chin defiantly and looked away. I think I always lied too much for her taste, she wasn’t really a fan. Honestly, the years we spent together she got a pretty good workout with how often she had to say I was lying. I think she misses me somewhere deep inside. Unfortunately, I have to say the same.
I knocked four times on the door and waited patiently. The door opened and a thin, tall woman sporting a dark red tail that she matched her lipstick to. Against her pale skin it looked nice I guess, if you’re into that. I wasn’t, not only was my preference for men, but tails always freaked me out a little. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have one.
“Hello boys!” She looked at me and raised an eyebrow. I think she was questioning my age, I had shaved that morning which was new because I usually just kept it trimmed and of course my height. But she had seen many different kinds of people cross through, so she didn’t ask questions about if I was ‘old enough’. “Are you looking for my girls?”
Really? That easy? We didn’t even tell her what we were supposed to. “Actually we are.” I said with my most charming smile.
We followed her in, L.C. on The Will’s heels, looking around with thinly veiled disdain. I’m sure she could smell the lies, I was just glad she couldn’t hear any. Fortunately nobody paid any attention to the large cat and therefore didn’t notice her distaste for the place.
She led us to a room where women, not girls, were lounging around in a wonderfully little amount of clothes. A few were playing cards, others were overly friendly with one another, some were reading, and the rest were finding other ways to entertain themselves. But when we walked in, all attention came to us, and the atmosphere changed to trying to win us over. And if I hadn’t been on a mission? Oh it would have worked, my pockets would have been emptied and I would have spent probably the rest of my life in a haze from the magic these girls preformed on me.
But no. Mission comes first.
It really was a shame.
“Take a look around boys,” Mama Jal winked and started to turn to leave but I cleared my throat.
“Sorry to bother you, I actually came by because Kilmar said you could help me with what I was looking for. These ladies are wonderful,” I said, smiling shyly over at them then looking back to the tall, tailed woman in front of me, “but I don’t think they’re the girls I’m looking for,” I felt sick to my stomach at the idea of what she would be thinking I meant, but I had to stay strong.
Mama Jal’s dark red smile turned from seductive to wicked and hungry. Something told me the girls cost a lot more. “Why don’t you boys follow me, I think I’ve got exactly what you’re looking for.”
And so once again, we followed. This time down skinny hallways and around tight corners, deep into Mama Jal’s brothel. We came to a door with pink peeling paint, and then Mama Jal turned to us again and winked. “You boys are going to have fun, these ones are new to our establishment.”
She was right. I was going to have fun. Ripping her goddamned head off for this.
She knocked on the door quietly then opened it, without waiting to give them time.
There stood the four girls, their hands behind their backs and their eyes focused on the ground, each looking more miserable than the last. “Girls, these nice boys are going to take good care of you while I’m away. Make sure you repay their kindness,” She turned and started to walk out the door. “I’ll take your money afterward, you’re probably both eager to,” she paused and looked back to the girls, “get to work.”
“Oh we are,” I said and watched her turn around. The Will slowly reached for his lance and I touched the hilt of my dagger. “And I think you’re going to enjoy this next part just as much as we are.”
“Lying,” Cat growled darkly as The Will’s lance shot through the air, finding its target in the back of her skull and not stopping until it came out from between her eyes.
I dropped my hand and shrugged. “You got me this time, L.C.,” Then I turned to the girls and knelt down in front of them. “Come on you guys, your parents are waiting for you.”
The girls looked hopeful for a second and then almost all at once their shoulders dropped again, “No they’re not. They can’t be,” The oldest one said quietly.
I pointed to Lying Cat, who was hissing at Mama Jal’s body still. Thankfully we’d killed her quietly, but it was only a matter of time before the ladies downstairs came looking for us. “See that cat? She’s a Lying Cat, and any time she hears a lie she tells everyone. So you know I’m not lying because L.C. here would tell you right away. We’re gonna take you kids home, okay?”
They looked skeptical, but they couldn’t exactly find fault in my logic, so the nodded. “We’ve got to get out of here,” The Will said, peering around the door.
“Right. Okay, you all hold hands and follow us and be real quiet, got that?” I said, straightening up and walking to the door. I looked behind me to make sure the girls had listened and then I spoke to The Will. “Think there’s a backdoor?”
“It’ll be easier to go the way we came and avoid the girls we saw earlier. They weren’t paying attention until we walked in, and now that we’re supposedly busy I don’t think they’ll notice. We just have to move quickly. They were in their own room, we should just have to get past that doorway and we’ll be fine after that.”
I think that was one of the few times our plans actually worked. The Will was right, the girls didn’t even notice the dark shapes move past the door. ‘Course this would be the job where everything went well.
We landed at the designated coordinates, a little nowhere place, probably to keep publicity down. Odds are they had this money to drop on Freelancers because they had big names.
When we walked out we were met with guards instead of friendly parents. The girls looked scared and confused, looking around for their parents but not seeing them, to be honest I was confused too.
The guards stepped forward and each one grabbed a girl and slung her over their shoulder, three guards stood beside us, watching our every move. I stepped forward and a large, meaty hand pushed me back. “Hey! What are you doing?” I yelled, pointing to the girls who were screaming and kicking in their new captors arms.
The oldest one met my eyes and she screamed, “You lied! You said Lying Cat would tell me when you lied! You lied to us!” She screamed as they were taking into a waiting car and tossed unceremoniously in.
I tried pushing past the guards but I couldn’t fight them all. The Will’s knuckles were white, but as the guards who had take the girls away started coming back he knew we were outnumbered. We couldn’t fight all of them. We couldn’t save them.
And then she appeared.
A short woman, she had a third eye on her forehead and thin black hair. Her lips were too large for her face and were purple against her sickly pale skin. “Thank you boys for bringing back my girls,” She said with a too wide smile.
“Who are you?” I snarled, trying to think of something I could do.
“Their mother of course!” She said with a laugh.
“Lying!” L.C. snapped, hissing at the guard that took a step toward her.
“Oh, fancy trick. I suppose mother is a strong word, but they call me Mama.”
Mama.
Mama.
Mama.
The word echoed in my head, bouncing around and making me dizzy. “No.” My voice was a hoarse whisper.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get your money and I’ll take care of the girls from now on.”
“Lying!” L.C. didn’t like when people refused to play by the rules, we had been told we were rescuing kids, not stealing from one brothel to give to another. That hadn’t been the deal.
“Well they won’t die, they’re worth too much to let anyone kill them, so how about that you little lie detector?” This unnamed woman said. She then turned to the nearest guard, “Make sure they get back on their ship safely. I’m going to take the girls home.”
We were roughly escorted to the ship, being pushed forward every time I turned around. Our little team wasn’t strong enough to take them on at the time. Now I wish I’d gone down fighting, show those girls that I meant it when I said I’d get them home. I wish I’d fought back. Fear has a funny way of freezing you in the moment though, you can’t make those kinds of decisions when you’re looking death in the eye. At least I couldn’t.
They paid us, but The Will threw the money out of the door before it shut. I didn’t argue.
The Will took it hard. He blamed himself for it all. I did too, but he seemed to have an even harder time than I did with it. Which was weird, because to this day I know it’s all my fault. But then again, he’d probably say it was his. He never let go of the guilt thing. He would have made a very good religious man with all of that guilt.
It was about two months before I saw any fire in his eyes again.
We were at breakfast, he was just staring down at it with empty eyes like he had been for two months. Not touching the food. I knew that I’d throw another full plate away again, but every morning I tried. Just in case. L.C. was in her bed, I’d barely seen her move. I’m sure if she could say more than that one infuriating word she would have said it was her fault too, that she should have known. We were just a house of masochists, all sitting around wallowing in our pain for the hell of it.
And then The Will surprised me. He had been so easy to read until this point that it truly surprised me, but that wasn’t the last time he did that. “It doesn’t matter who’s most at fault. We lost those girls as a team.” His voice was low and he was staring down at his plate so I couldn’t see his face. “And now we must make amends.”
I scoffed and looked out the window in the kitchen. “Yeah? And how do you plan for us to do that?”
I saw him move out of the corner of my eye and turned back to say something snippy but when I looked into his eyes I saw it. That old spark he had. Fuck, screw spark, I saw a goddamn forest fire in those eyes. “We’re going to save every sex slave in this damn galaxy or we’re going to die trying.” And with that, he took a bite of eggs.
And that’s how we got started on our side job. Vigilantes. And this is where my story starts getting good.