ZP: The Price of Loyalty

Z-parasites

Epilogue 1: The price of loyalty



    The clock ticked slowly in the infirmary and Aaru let out a low sigh as he looked at the surrounding sickbeds, all occupied by wounded comrades. To him, every member was important so he had taken upon himself to look over their recovery day by day in order to make sure they would make it. If anyone needed to talk, he was prepared. “We got important information, but at what cost?” he asked himself while eyeing one of the Tamed, a broken woman with bandages covering her face and upper body. “I knew Anne was strong, but that she would grow so much stronger in such a short amount of time was outside of my calculations. I did not want it to turn out this way…”

    “Don’t worry about it, Aaru…” a weak voice spoke. “We were beaten by her group, but that was only because we didn’t know shit. We definitely had the manpower, but we didn’t expect them to be so organized. We underestimated them and paid the price. Next time-“

    “Next time you will be prepared, I know. Just take your time to recover and while you do so, think about your fight. Focus on what you did wrong and try to find ways to avoid it in the future.” Aaru interrupted before flashing a confident smile while placing a hand on the person’s sickbed. “You are my strongest fighter, I know you will find a way to defeat Anne. From the day I recruited you three years ago and until now, you have showed remarkable progress, so keep at it Angelica.”

    The woman managed a grin and chuckled in response while slowly raising her hand to give a thumbs up. “You’ve seen nothing yet. Now that I’ve actually found an actual challenge, I’ll train harder than ever. Next time I see that bitch, I’ll cave her face in. I think the rest of my crew thinks the same after this experience. We’ve finally found our goal, so don’t give up on us just yet.”

    “That is great to hear. Now if you excuse me, I have to be off. I shall see you all soon.” the man replied, faking a smile while he hastily stepped forward and left the infirmary. The very second the door closed however, he leaned his back against the wall and rested his hand against the forehead with a heavy sigh. “The things I say to motivate my peers… I should try to keep those people away from Anne in the future. Someone with a clear goal and motivation could be incredibly difficult to handle for her, especially considering the physical strength Angelica possesses. Now, how should I solve this?”

    “There you are! I’ve been looking for you.”

    Aaru looked to the side and saw a familiar face looking him dead in the eyes. “Oh, miss Charlotte. Do you need help with something?”

    The woman shook her head. “Not really, no. It’s about what happened during the hunting team’s mission. We’re supposed to have a meeting today, remember? Since you were the one in charge of them, Hadrea wants your input in regards to the footage I got.”

    “Oh, right… The hunting team…”  The man looked down and rubbed the back of his neck subconsciously before catching himself. He straightened back up, though distress was still visible on his face. While they managed to get important information thanks to the hunting group, it came at a price; two dead members and the remaining team shot down with no morale to continue. A week had already passed since then and Aaru had yet to bring any motivation out of the remaining team. There was no doubt that the loss of their two best fighters had dealt a huge blow, as this also meant that they had lost their sense of security. He still remembered seeing the recording for the first time and the image of Ryan and Edward getting killed was still lingering fresh in his mind, as if it happened just yesterday. He felt his stomach turn just thinking about it. “When is the meeting?” he asked lowly.

    Charlotte rolled her eyes. “It’s now, stupid! I’ve been in a hurry looking all over for you and it’s been fucking exhausting! Just follow me already, will you?”  With a huff, she turned and walked away, waving her hand at him to follow.

    He followed without a word, thinking deeply of what to tell Hadrea. She was a clever woman, so he already knew that even if his conclusion was correct, she would have known long ago. In his eyes, a meeting with her about something like this seemed strange to him, which made it all the more suspicious. “She probably has another reason for this meeting. I hope it is not what I think it is…” he whispered, making sure Charlotte wouldn’t hear.

    A few corridors ahead, they reached their destination and stood in front of a tall steel door, apparently made for those who preferred staying in their symbiote forms. Charlotte looked up at a sensor above the door and once it had scanned her, the steel door opened, letting the two members in before automatically closing. What met them was a wide room with soundproof steel walls surrounding them and in the very middle a table and six chairs could be seen, one of them occupied by Hadrea. At the center of the table was a round, black device which projected a see-through hologram that went in a loop and once the two stepped forward, their leader pushed her finger against it, making the projection freeze. “Sit down.”

    The two sat down and looked at her, then at the hologram, ready to start their discussion. “So,” Aaru started, “I was told you wanted my input in regards to hunter group’s mission? I must be entirely honest, I have not been looking through my copy of the footage as much as I should since things has gotten busy this week. I apologize in advance if I reach any stupid conclusions.”

    Hadrea sighed and rubbed her forehead. “It doesn’t matter. Just some input is enough, I didn’t bring you for your conclusions anyway.” the woman replied coldly, moving her attention back at the projector. “Now, let’s pay attention to this scene, okay?”  She pushed her finger against the hologram which then showed the interaction between Anne and the hunters until reaching the point where Anne knocked out the megalodon infected, to which Hadrea paused the footage with a simple push. “Here’s a question for you Aaru. From what I’ve gathered, the one who fell just then was among the better fighters of the hunters, correct?”

    Aaru nodded and scratched his chin. “That is correct. I never expected him to be knocked out in a mere two hits. Then again, to be fair, both were solid and hit soft spots that-“

    “Doesn’t matter.  What matters is this; Why the hell didn’t the rest of your seasoned hunters move in before that traitorous woman took him out?! Yes, those were solid blows indeed, but his teammates shouldn’t be this slow even if he did attack prematurely!” she snapped, making chills run down the man’s spine. “You’ve told me how well you and your friends trained those hunters, yet this footage shows otherwise.”

    Aaru waved his hands defensively at Hadrea, showing a weak smile as sweat trickled down the side of his head. “You are absolutely correct miss Hadrea, there is no doubt about it. However, this was their third mission over the course of just two months, so we cannot expect them to have the experience to keep up with every scenario. They have the knowledge and intelligence needed for hunting, they were just too inexperienced when faced with the enemy they handled. In hindsight, I should have called them back when I could since they did not have the backup Angelica’s group which was the original idea...”

    “Don’t say that.” Charlotte intervened, placing a bunch of papers on the table, filled with scribbles and notes. It was obvious she had spent the majority of her time studying the footage she had received. “Yes, some died, but they helped us receive valuable information. For example…”

    Hadrea shook her head. “We’re getting to that in a moment Charlotte.”  She pushed her finger against the hologram again and it resumed playing, showing the fight and eventual loss off Anne, followed by her reveal of the Harmony base. Just as Meglin appeared and stabbed the bloodhound infected, Hadrea paused again. “You’ve called these guys great hunters and trackers, yet none of them noticed her attacking before it was too late. You’ve been way too confident about this group Aaru. They already had a name for themselves before they had finished their training because you talked about their potential and skills, as well as how they were going to use their numbers to overwhelm every enemy. Sure, they succeeded their first two missions but those were just simple tracking missions which in hindsight never carried any risks.”

    The man stayed silent as he listened to his leader, nodding and acknowledging his mistakes. “You are right, I was too naive when handling the team. If I had managed them better, then maybe none of them would have died. From here and onward, I promise that this will not repeat itself miss Hadrea. I shall make sure no one else will die under my command.”

    “Oh, if they die or not doesn’t really bother me. What bothers me is when our members are being incompetent. Then again, they dying is another way of weeding out the useless ones I suppose.”

    Aaru’s eye twitched at Hadrea’s comment and he looked down to hide his emotions as he wasn’t fond of his leader’s choice of words. However, he said nothing and nodded in response, fully well knowing that getting in a heated discussion would turn ugly very quickly. Charlotte noticed this, but instead of pointing it out to Hadrea, she instead patted the papers while turning her attention over to her leader. “Anyways, now’s the time for us to talk about the info we received, right?”

    The bat infected huffed before nodding at the former journalist. “Yeah, let’s do that. Talking about those incompetent hunters has given me a headache. Since you’re so eager about it, you can start.”

    Charlotte nodded and slid the top paper forward towards the center, showing her notes in an arranged manner with names and abilities written down in neat paragraphs. “Firstly, I’d like to talk about what we found out from the footage we got during the fight against Anne Wild’s team. It’s not much, so I’ll keep it brief.”  She then tapped her finger against Cami and Meglin’s names. “While we already had the names of the three others, which were all former Tamed, these two are new and will be added to our database after the meeting. After some digging in various files, I found out that their names are Meglin Maevius and Cami Tremblay, though there is next to no information of their upbringing. Cami is a bear infected and from the looks of it, she seemed unsure and inexperienced, leading me to believe that she’s still new. Meglin is another case entirely however. Her skill, agility, technique and precision were at a very high level, so we must take care of her swiftly before she can develop into an even bigger threat.”

    With crossed arms, Aaru nodded in agreement. “I have seen that woman in action before and I could not agree more. The pure scale of how much she has developed since last time is alarming. If she is not dealt with, we will not be able to take her out without losing a large amount of our members. The same can be said for Cami. She was inexperienced and unsure indeed, but she also showed progress during that one fight. Not to mention, she was rather young which means that she might grow into a huge force to be reckoned with if left alone.”

    “Exactly. Now, for the other three…” Charlotte mused, looking at the notes for the remaining three. “Sarith has changed quite a lot ever since she left us. She was quite honestly unrecognizeable and I wouldn’t have thought it was her if they didn’t say her name. She focuses a lot on taking advantage of her opponent’s weaknesses, so she’s quite dangerous to face if not careful. Then there’s that bastard Ivan… He’s still a tricky bastard and hasn’t changed that much in terms of fighting style.”  She then paused as her finger rested on Anne’s name before her stern face suddenly showed a tiny smirk. “Then there’s Anne Wild. I can safely say she’s the most dangerous one since she’s shown both great intelligence and pure strength. The way she completely dismantled her opponent as well as creating the best possible matchups for her team proved this. However, thanks to the recordings, we can safely say she’s dead.”

    “We don’t know for sure.” Hadrea stated, keeping her serious demeanor as she looked at the two. “We have no idea just how deep the bite went.”

    “I agree.” Aaru commented, scratching the back of his right ear before placing his hands on the table. “She has been recorded as an incredible stubborn fighter and for a good reason. I have witnessed her fights before and something that never changed was her immense will to keep fighting. She is a high spirited individual who will not die easily.”

    Hadrea threw a dark look at Aaru. “Don’t give her too much credit now Aaru.”  She rubbed her temple before nodding at Charlotte. “We’re done with this subject now. Let’s talk about the main footage.”

    “Right.”  Charlotte shuffled her papers and spread the sheets in a neat fashion for everyone to see. “We got a number of interesting info regarding their base, but there’s two points in particular that I’d like to address; one, there is more than one base and two, they’re moveable. What she said sounds unlikely and doesn’t make much sense, yet there are some aspects that might prove that this isn’t false. The fact that she became willing to kill the hunters once Meglin arrived means that she definitely didn’t want the information to get out there. Not to mention, we have no idea about the Harmony base in and of itself. There’s no clear proof if they do or don’t have the technology to be capable of these things, so chances are Anne told the truth.”

    “I disagree.” Aaru said calmly, shaking his head. “If she truly did not want them to know, she could just as well have carried that secret to her grave. Notice how she told them everything just as they were about to deal the finishing blow; she only wanted to buy time. The fact that she talked about getting them killed was most likely to give them the wrong impression and keep them fooled if they were to get away. As for the base, there is no real proof that support either claims. Five separate, moving bases sounds a bit farfetched if I were to say my honest opinion.”  He then leaned back on his chair with an exasperated sigh. “With all due respect, I believe the second phase of our fight was a waste of time. We gained nothing but misinformation and two dead members.”

    “How can you be so sure?” Charlotte asked, annoyed at his disagreement. “The things I mentioned are good pointers at the fact that Anne-”  She stopped talking when she spotted her leader giving the woman a stare followed by a slow shake of her head.

    ”I’ll have to agree with Aaru. It’s obvious she wanted to buy time for the cavalry to arrive.” Hadrea stated, her tone sour. “I was already certain of this, but I wanted to see what you two thought just in case. At least one of you reached the same conclusion as I.”  She paused for a second before huffing. “This meeting’s over. I’ve heard enough.”

    “What?! You can’t be serious! We’ve just started the meeting!” Charlotte snapped, slapping the palm of her hands on the table which made the various papers scatter and fly in the air. “I’ve dedicated this entire last week on researching every single bit of information in preparation for this meeting and then you just drop it just like that? What did we even gain from this meeting?”

    Without a word, Aaru got up from his chair and stretched. “Do not bother, when Hadrea makes up her mind, no one can change it. We did however get some nice information and data in regards to our enemies and their style of fighting, so it was not a waste of time. Keep those notes miss Charlotte, because they can be incredibly useful for us in the future when we eventually fight those people.”

    The journalist leaned on the table before running her hand across her hair then straightened up and picked up her papers. “Fine, whatever. I’ll just go and register the new info so this won’t be such a huge waste of time.”  The woman stormed off with the papers and left the room grumbling, cursing under her breath in utter frustration.

    Aaru took a step forward and headed for the exit as well, but stopped as he heard Hadrea stand up and walk toward him. When he turned his head around, his heart skipped a beat at the sight of her ominous glare that felt as if it pierced through his chest. “Err…miss Hadrea? Is something the matter?”

    Suddenly, her hand shot forward and caught the man’s throat, making him gasp in surprise as he showed her a look of surprise and confusion. “As a matter of fact, there is. There is something that’s been bothering me and after seeing this mission’s footage, I have one question; are you really as loyal to the Tamed as you claim to be?”

    A chill ran down the man’s spine, but he managed to keep his composure and opened his mouth to speak. “Of course I am. You saved my life five years ago, so there is no way I would even think of betraying you. Why do you ask? With all due respect miss-”

    “Then why are you favoring Anne so much? You could have snapped her neck the second you caught her, but you didn’t. You let her run and instead gambled on your inexperienced hunter team to handle her. And let’s not forget that little speech you gave her, about how sorry you feel for the woman.”  She threw him to the floor with a loud thud. “You have served me well these past five years, recruiting and training effective members for our cause. Despite the failure of your convict team, they still showed that they are better than the average Tamed, so for that I thank you. However, if I ever find you sparing or praising Anne one more time, I will take that as a sign of treason and personally slit your throat.”

    Aaru trembled as he got up in a sitting position, rubbing his sore throat as he listened to what his leader had to say. At this moment he was too shaken and scared to respond at all, knowing that if he worded himself wrong, the woman would definitely kill him on the spot. Instead, he sat there, waiting for her to continue.

    Hadrea gritted her teeth and stepped forward, her cold aura making the whole room seem as if it would freeze stiff. “Now listen closely at my order if you know what’s best for you. If you want to prove that you are indeed loyal to me, kill Anne. Otherwise…well, you know what’ll happen. I’ll be watching you Aaru.”

    The man stood up and leaned one hand against the table, his heart beating at a massive rate. Up until now, he had used nothing but loopholes to avoid orders that he wasn’t fond of executing, but this one order was as direct as it could be. He bit his lip. While he cared immensely for Anne, his loyalty to the Tamed, hell, even his life was on the line. Avoiding any eye contact with his leader, Aaru slowly nodded at Hadrea. “As you wish, miss Hadrea… I will not disappoint you again.”  With slow, uncertain steps, he walked past the woman, heading for the door. Just as he was about to leave however, Hadrea spoke once more.

    “Just so you’re aware, normally I would have killed people like you on the spot. I can’t stand the thought of traitors, especially when the number of them keeps increasing. Only reason you even get a second chance is because you have proven to be of good use, remember that. It would be a shame if you were to…disappear.”

    “R-right… But before I go, I need something from you.”

                                                      -------------------------------------------------------

    Once Aaru had left the meeting room, he let out an exasperated sigh as he walked through the hallway, rubbing his forehead in frustration. “What should I do now…? I cannot use any loopholes to avoid hurting Anne, so what should I do?”  He stopped for a moment and started thinking, trying his best to find a suitable solution that wouldn’t brand him as a traitor or lead to the death of Anne; it didn’t take long for him to realize it was pointless. The fact that he had to make a choice frustrated and saddened the man to no end, leading him to thoughtlessly punch the steel wall only to regret it seconds later. “Kill Anne…or betray the woman who saved my life… How am I supposed to know an answer to that?”

    “Now that’s not something we see often. Who knew Aaru Yordel himself could throw a punch?” a deep voice said, making Aaru look to his left. Facing him, a tall, bulky man wearing a red and yellow Hawaiian shirt stood, a rather amused expression plastered on his face as he stroked his rugged, black beard. “I thought you weren’t capable of showing frustration, so seeing you punch the wall like that both amuses and scares me. You mind telling me what happened?”

    “Stephen…” Aaru muttered, his eyes shifting for a moment before he finally showed a smile. “I am glad to see you are back. I take it that your mission succeeded? You do not seem to be injured at all.”

    Flashing a wide, proud grin, Stephen twisted his upper body and flexed his muscles, almost ripping his shirt into pieces by doing so. “It was a breeze~ I helped neutralizing a bunch of strays and I barely even needed to do a thing. I just injected some venom and they fell down like flies, unable to fight.”

    “That is only natural considering your parasite. Platypuses have a rather potent venom to take care of offenders, so I take it you did not kill anyone like usual?”  He looked Stephen in the eyes before smiling when the man nodded. “That is good. Now, how is the rest of the team? They did not get hurt, did they?”

    “What the hell man? As if we would be any worse off than Stephen. Ain’t anyone more badass than Jesse-motherfucking-Grey here. Hey, you lookin’ at me? C’mon Aaru, you know you can’t resist this beautiful face of mine.”

    Aaru couldn’t help but snort the second he heard the voice coming from behind Stephen. Dressed in a rugged, tattered bicycle vest, a short man appeared from behind the taller man, his forehead bleeding profusely. Noticing the blood, Jesse hurriedly covered the bleeding spot with his left hand before holding his thumbs up with his right. Despite the fact that the man was wounded, Aaru smiled and laughed, too used to the man’s antics to even bother. “I see you are just fine as well. That is reassuring.”

    Just then a woman ran up from behind Jesse and slapped the back of the man’s head, forcing out a yelp of surprise from the man’s mouth as his head jerked forward. Wearing a black dress with yellow lines stretching all the way down to her knees, the redhead huffed in frustration while crossing her arms. “This man’s never been fine, not in the head at least. Being the moron he is, he ignored our strategies yet again and just went full man mode into the stray infected’s hideout. He almost got himself killed out there and-“

    “Bitch, I survived that shit. You really think I’d die fightin’ those assholes? Hell no, I kicked their ass.”

    “They pinned you down and almost ripped your head off-“

    “That didn’t happen. I kicked their-“

    “You tripped the second you stepped your foot into their hideout!”

    “Irrelevant. I was just foolin’ the fuckers into thinkin’ that I was no threat.”

    With a deep sigh, Stephen stepped between the two and pushed them back. “Yes, yes, you’re both pretty. Triana, Jesse, be nice now. We haven’t seen Aaru in two weeks so we should be happy about seeing him again."

    Aaru couldn't help but smile. Seeing his childhood friends all fine and well made him happier than ever. With a single snap of his finger to gain their attention, he finally opened his mouth again. “Everyone, I am glad to see that all of you are all fine and well. I will tell you all what has been going on these past two weeks, but right now I have something important to attend to. I promise it will not take long so let us all meet outside my room in one hour okay?”

    The group nodded and Aaru chuckled silently as he passed them, heading down the hall at a steady pace. He had finally found the answer to his question and clenched his fist. After walking silently for five minutes, the squid infected finally reached his destination; a tall steel door with an inscription saying “cells”. Opening the door, he walked down the following stairs before reaching the bottom, surrounded by cells left to right. He continued walking for a little while until he spotted the cell he was looking for, the entrance saying “dangerous, do not disturb unless Hadrea”. He stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out a single, rectangular chip before sticking it into a slim hole in the cell. A click was heard and the man entered, taking a deep breath as he braced himself. If he really were to complete his new mission, he knew he needed some extra leverage, a force he knew would be convenient for both him and the Tamed. “Thank god Hadrea let me do this…” he muttered to himself.

    Once inside the cell, the squid infected’s face scrunched up in disgust at the sight that met him. Chained into the wall, a large man with dark, bloody bruises growled, looking Aaru dead in the eyes. “Yet another one who’s come to torture me? No matter what you do, I still won’t join you guys. I have nothing that you need, so why are you keeping me alive still? Just kill me already!”

    “Actually, you do have something we need. I have heard all about you in fact. Four days ago, you encountered five of our members in your parasitic state. You leveled a great amount of buildings and killed all five of our members in the ensuing rampage of yours. Those member were not just mere rookies, they were all seasoned veteran fighters, so the fact that you killed them all proves your merit as a fighter. I am not too fond of you killing my allies, but since I am in a situation-“

    “I don’t give a shit. I know I’m a good fighter, I’ve always been. However, I have no reason to follow you people, nor a reason to live. I have nothing worth fighting for, so please do me a favor and kill me.”

    Aaru shook his head. “I am terribly sorry, but I cannot stand killing. That is why I need you. I know your background, who you are and if you look closely yourself, I am sure you can recognize me as well. Please, take a few moments of your time and look at me. I am sure you will remember.”

    The man hesitated, but eventually started scanning the man head to toe, looking closely at his features. “Now that you mention it…I actually have seen you from somewhere…dunno from where though.”

    “I suppose it has been a while since we last talked. It cannot be helped. Anyway, I need you to do something for me and in exchange, I will give you something that you want. Judging by your background and recent events, there is no doubt that you will accept.”

    “Just tell me already before I bite your head off.”

    The squid infected hesitated for a second before moving forward and leaned in against the imprisoned man’s ear, then started whispering. Once he was done and stepped back, he could almost feel his heart leap at the sight that followed.

    With a huge, disgusting and twisted grin, the man’s bronze eyes lit up brightly and he started to pull at the shackles, almost ripping out the solid steel that held him back. “I’ll join you. Just let me free and I’ll join you!”

    With this reaction, Aaru looked down and sighed sadly as he forced a tiny smile. “I am terribly sorry, but I have to do this for the sake of everyone…Anne Wild…”