Jasvinder Krishnan

"Why are both of you doing this?" Sammie demands angrily at both Wu and Don while the village continues to burn merrily to the ground. Wu however pointedly ignores Sammie as he scans the area, searching for where I have hidden myself. I push Thomas and Jackson to the ground with a finger to my lips, signalling them to be quiet.

"Just show yourself Jasvinder." Don says as he idly twirls his pistols by their trigger guards, "Stop wasting time."

"Jasvinder," Wu continues addressing me directly, "You have some nerve, not only breaking your promises to us but also trying to poison Sheryl and Lisa. Did you think we would never find out?"

"What are they talking about?" Thomas blubbers, "Is it true? Did you try to murder their friends?" I quickly put my hand over Thomas's mouth to shush him, before Wu manages to hear us.

"I'll explain later." I whisper, "I swear it. Just believe in me, OK?" Thomas nods unhappily, doubt filling his eyes. It hurts, this look of pure distrust on my husband's face, but there's nothing I can do about it now.

"This all your fault!" Jackson hisses angrily at me, but he doesn't take the argument any further. Both of us know that our lives are in deadly peril. Causing a scene now would just invite Wu and Don to finish us off. The three of us return to peeking through an open window, taking in what's going on outside.

"Nothing to say, Jasvinder?" Wu taunts, "Going to keep running and hiding? You should know that we'll never stop. Not until this matter has been settled."

"Don't ignore me!" Sammie snaps, "You think I'll let the two of you get away with what happened today?"

"You couldn't stop us even if you tried." Wu calmly states, and I can mentally picture him rolling his eyes at Sammie's outburst, "I'm more interested in the troublemaker standing beside you. He's a long way from home, just like us."

"Trying to muscle in on our turf." Don sneers, "Came here to perform a harvest I reckon."

"So, a Blue Ocean running dog decides to pay us a visit." Wu regards the assassin evenly, "What are we going to do with him, I wonder?"

Sammie lunges forward in her bulwark, her fury palpable. But the assassin grabs Sammie's shoulder, restraining her and forcing the Valkyrie to take several steps back.

"I came here to protect this village," the assassin's educated voice, tight and controlled, filters from the Stormer's speakers as he answers Wu, "and for revenge against your friend."

"Revenge? What the hell?" Don complains waspishly, "Since when did I do anything to you? I don't even know your bloody identity."

The assassin points his rifle threateningly at Don, positively shaking with rage. But that voice remains calm and considered, the only evidence of emotion being the slightly terse delivery of the words.

"Don't play dumb, monster." the assassin chokes out, "You killed my brother. Another crime to add to the long list you've to answer for."

"Oh that guy." Don guffaws unpleasantly, "Yeah, I wasted that loser by drop kicking him at supersonic speed. Mess with the bull and you get the horns."

"So your brother was the one who first tried to interfere with us?" Wu chuckles, "That's quite a bit of hypocrisy on your part, coming here to do the same thing we do, yet taking the moral high ground."

"We're nothing like you!" the assassin shouts, this time losing his temper completely, "We don't need to kill to fuel our powers! We're here to help, to protect!"

My heart jumps at this declaration by the assassin while Don laughs uproariously in the background. My former partner clearly doesn't believe it, but could this really be true? Was there a way to break the eternal cycle of violence an Operative is sucked into? And if it was possible to get rid of the need for serum, then perhaps ...

Salvation might be possible for me after all.

"Cute story." Don giggles, "But no one here's buying that shit."

"Perhaps I was wrong." Wu muses, "We may have a need for you after all, Blue Ocean running dog."

"Can anyone tell me what's going on?" Sammie yells in distress, completely left out of the conversation.

"Why do we need this guy?" Don grumbles to Wu, "He's trying to kill us, remember?"

The rollers held by Wu's bulwark begin to whir , unspooling their lengths of chain which Wu begins to lazily brush across the ground, stirring up small clouds of dirt.

"Blue Ocean got here faster than the Management had initially predicted." Wu elaborates, "I want to know how and the good running dog here is going to tell me."

The assassin grips his rifle tightly as he shoots back, "If you think I would ever cooperate -"

"We won't be giving you a choice." Wu interrupts the assassin with his flat monotone, "Don, deal with the mouthy Valkyrie."

"Fat chance!" Sammie shouts defiantly and raises her chain cannon, the barrels already whirring into action. The assassin also levels his rifle at their opponents and in a single almost synchronized movement, the duo unleash a storm of lead at Wu and Don.

Wu springs into action, swinging the arms of his bulwark about at lightning speed, sending the chains flying into the air with almost deranged energy. The chains whip about in a massive vortex, swiftly forming a wall of slashing metal. Sparks fly as bullets and shells ricochet off this swirling barrier, failing to penetrate Wu's iron defense. Sammie and the assassin dump more and more firepower, hoping that some shots would slip through the gaps of Wu's shield, but my former Senior Operative simply increases the tempo of his arms, easily keeping pace with the incoming shots.

"By the way," Wu says almost conversationally, "the flails I'm using were originally developed to clear mine fields, so don't bother trying to break the chains. It won't work."

At this moment, Don lifts off from the ground with a burst of flame from his jets, and performs a neat flip over the heads of both Sammie and the assassin. Firing his thrusters to break the momentum of his descent, Don drops his Skirmisher into a hover just above the ground and begins unloading his pistols into Sammie's back.

Sammie's Fortress, already ailing from the beating that Don had already inflicted before this, is sent reeling off balance as its pilot desperately attempts to prevent herself from face planting in the dirt. As Sammie staggers badly from Don's unrelenting attack, the barrel of her chain cannon dips, causing the weapon to fire into the ground at point blank range. There's a huge explosion, sending a great load of rubble flying into the air and showering all the combatants.

Chunks of soil mixed with pieces of broken paving clatter across the armored frames of the fighting bulwarks. And out of the mist of fine dust emerges the assassin's Stormer, jets blazing at maximum velocity, performing a leap high into the air with the bayonet extended, in an attempt to lunge over the thrashing chains of Wu's flails.

But Wu casually flicks one of his arms upwards, sending a set of chains coiling out like an enraged anaconda. The chains loop around the waist of the Stormer and tightens like a lasso. The Stormer fires its jets, trying to break free, but the chains instead grow taut as Wu pulls hard against them, sending the assassin spinning about in a circle above his head. Wu performs a great heaving motion and swings the assassin like a wrecking ball, sending the Stormer crashing straight into the statue of Iros mounted on the roof of the village's transmission station.

The statue totters badly, pieces of it falling apart due to the collision and just manages to retain enough balance to avoid tipping over the side of the building. The assassin however crumples to the ground like a sack of bricks, the chains of Wu's flail still wrapped securely around his waist. The rifle falls free from the Stormer's grip and Wu decisively slams his bulwark's foot on it, snapping the weapon in two like a twig. As the Stormer struggles back to its feet, Wu lifts his other arm high and delivers a crisp lashing stroke across the assassin's back with the flail. There is the sound of tearing metal and the Stormer is driven back into the dirt from the force of the blow.

While all this happening, Sammie totters about, completely overwhelmed by Don's attack. Sparks belch from the damage all over Sammie's fortress as she finally loses her battle with gravity, sagging to her knees in defeat. A spiderweb of cracks spread all over the Fortress and it begins to flake away back into the ether, the accumulated damage too much for it to bear. Sammie's dirty face looks upwards, taking in the sight of the triumphant victors as her machine disintegrates into fluttering will-o-wisps.

"How?" she murmurs, stunned and disbelieving, "Both of you are just Auxilia."

"Fight. Don't give up." the assassin groans, trying to encourage Sammie. But Wu rakes his flail across the assassin's back once more, eliciting a scream of pain.

"You should have stayed in the Citadel, Sammie." Don says, pointing his gun at her head, "If you had never showed up here, things would be different. Blame it on your bad luck."

"Mr Auxilia who does not like men ..." Sammie murmurs, her eyes glazed from shock. Her body sways unsteadily as her consciousness begins to fade.

"We have to go. Now." I whisper to Thomas and Jackson, "The fight is almost over. Don will go back to searching for us very soon."

Thomas nods but suddenly looks about desperately. Just as I am about to ask him what is wrong, I realize that Jackson is missing.

"Shit!" I curse, "Where did Jackson run off to? We can't afford to be screwing about now!"

Thomas just points back out of the window. And when I turn to see what he's gesturing at, my stomach sinks. Jackson has placed himself between Sammie and Don, glaring at my former partner with a determined look.

"Get lost." Don grunts disinterestedly.

"No more killing." Jackson declares, "You no hurt Sammie!"

"Cute. You've impressed the girl." Don laughs, "Now fuck off and let her die happy."

"Jackson not strong." the wolf man bares his chest, "But with Jackson around, there's only one way you can hurt Sammie."

"Really." Wu joins the conversation, taking a break from whipping the assassin who lies in a tortured heap, "I have to hear this one. Do tell."

Jackson shudders at Wu's coldly amused tone but draws up with courage once more, facing both Operatives down.

"Over dead body. You have to go over Jackson's dead body."