Katakiuchi

[Leo]

Freeport 11 - One week after the destruction of the White Rabbit and end of the ZDF

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Zylar's Osprey touched down on the landing pad inside of Freeport 11. He had only been out this direction a few times on patrols during his time leading the ZDF. Delta was quite a bit away from Omega-48, so his stays here had been brief, usually just making sure that all was well with the station administration and then moving on from there. He pulled the key out of the Osprey and collected his belongings. He wouldn't be coming back to the fighter. He stepped out of the landing pad and headed for the bar where he was supposed to meet Kasumi.

Kasumi was a firecracker for sure, he knew that when he initially brought her into the fold a few months ago. He knew that she'd left the ZDF before it had fallen but he didn't hold that against her. He'd read the brief report from her shortly before the events in Omega-7. Forced to leave Freeport 1 because of a deal that had been brokered with the Bretonia Government. If that had happened to him, he might've done the same thing. They'd signed away their rights to police their own station to the very house that had stolen Gran Canaria from them and killed their people. It was disgusting. It was possible that they were pressured into it by the Bretonians; that they'd come along and strong-armed them into it. It seemed like a tactic they would use, after all. Things like that were going to change though if he had his way. They would all pay for their evil in various ways, but the first way they would pay was in blood. He was sick of the Houses getting away with all the shit that they did to others.

Zylar wanted to believe that he had a foolproof plan to make them pay, but he didn't. He had the framework of a plan but nothing concrete. It would take patience and a serious amount of credits to pull off but he was willing to put in the effort ot make these bastards pay for all their wrongful deeds.

He came into the bar and searched the crowd. Eventually, he saw a Kusari woman hunched over a drink near the window of the bar. He remembered when he had first met her months ago on the stolen Destroyer she was flying. She'd looked younger then; brighter. Now, she looked smaller and less bright; almost dulled. She'd been a Dragon before fighting against the Kusari Government. Then a Zoner who were taken advantage of by all of all of the Houses...and now she wasn't really anything anymore. He understood her anguish. He understood her pain. He had found the Zoners after a lifetime of disappointments and anguish and now he was right back to where he started.

He was going to change all that though, he hoped. He would make them pay.

"Kasumi." he said speaking up. She half turned her head towards his voice and then faced back forward.

"Not dead then?" she replied. Her voice no longer carrying the lilting tones he was used to hearing from her.

"They tried their best." he said taking a seat next to her.

They sat in silence for a while, each harboring their own feelings towards what had happened over the past week. The realization of the fact that the Houses really didn't respect the Zoners, the destruction of the White Rabbit and the death of the ZDF...all of it. He glanced over towards her. Her right hand was wrapped in a bandage, the color of blood barely visible seeping out from the cloth. Seems he wasn't the only one with anger issues these days. Somehow, the thought of that made him surprisingly happy.

"You said we were going to make them pay." Kasumi said speaking up finally. "These are House systems though. Governments. How can two people hope to make them pay for what they've done? What they're doing?" she said her voice slowly becoming tinged in anger.

"I don't have the specifics worked out. I only have the very basis of an idea. You and I won't do anything initially. We will earn money for odd jobs. We'll disappear from memory. Let the memory of the ZDF fade into obscurity as well. We'll build a nice nest egg of credits; a war chest if you will. Then once we have everything set and ready, we'll begin our plan. We'll use others to achieve our goals without them realizing. They will be cells of a plot that they have no idea they're participating in until it's too late. Then we'll pull the trigger and none will be the wiser that we are the culprits."

Zylar had never said his idea out-loud before. Hearing it made him sound like some maniacal mad man...like a terrorist. But he supposed that was what he had become. What he'd been forced into. Kasumi turned to face him. Her eyes full of anger and rage but also glee.

"When do we begin?"

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You fear oblivion. Yet you forget. The universe remembers every atom of your being. Even dust hums your name in the dark.

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Starlight Research Consortium | The Banished Legion | Astral
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