Anamnesis

[Leo]

The following morning, Leo did his usual rituals. Retrieving vegetables, cleaning, peeling, and dicing, adding to a bowl and eating. After he was finished, he quickly rinsed the bowl and left to the garden for a second time to retrieve more for the mother and her child. As he was pulling and picking various plants, he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

His senses had always been dialed to eleven ever since his time as a Dragon. He knew he was being watched but he paid it no mind. It was better whomever thought he was an easy mark continued thinking that...it made ending them that much easier. He glanced to the door to his home and saw the mother and child still sleeping peacefully. He turned his attention back to the garden when a man in a dark uniform stepped from behind the shadows.

"No sudden moves." he said with a deep accented voice. Kusarian.

Leo did his best impression of someone who was frightened. "Look, I'm just a settler. I don't have any money or valuables. Take whatever food you like."

"I don't want your plants," he spat. "I want the woman and the boy."

Leo glanced the way towards his house and noted that her and the boy were absent, no doubt hiding inside.

"I don't know who you're speaking about. I live here alone." he said.

The man stuck Leo across the face.

"Lie again and the next time I take a body part."

Leo grinned, he couldn't help it. This guy thought he was tough. Preyed upon the innocent.

"You think that's funny?" he said moving to strike Leo a second time, this time he regretted it. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, his implants flared with life. He moved out of the way of the moving fist as if it was in slow motion; a feral haymaker carelessly thrown without finesse. The man's face turned from one of anger to surprise as Leo appeared at his side and landed a punch square into the side of his head. He went flying five feet through the air, crashing through a small tree. He moved sluggishly as he rose to his feet in a daze. Leo stood feet away, his eyes glowing with an eerie cyan light, his implants cycling his blood at an increased rate, his muscles tensed and ready to fight.

"What the hell are you?"

"Just a man who wants to be left alone. You leave here, you might survive. Stay, and you die a violent and painful death." Leo's voice had changed from a weak man just wanting to be left alone, to one possessing power. The other man considered his options, staring daggers through Leo.

"Or how's about I just fucking shoot you." he said pulling a pistol. However, before he could do anything, Leo moved as if gravity had no effect on him. He grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward, elbowing him square in the sternum with such force that the bone snapped. An audible pop echoed throughout the jungle as his eyes bulged from his head. Leo spun to his right and grabbed the sides of the man's head. He twisted violently, his nanofiber augmented muscles making quick work of his spine. The man went limp as the torque Leo had applied to snapping the man's neck pulled his head off his shoulders. Skin, tendons and sineu coming with the body part. He threw it deep into the jungle.

"How's about you fucking die." Leo said, mocking his last words while looking down at his cooling body sitting in an ever expanding pool of blood. "Ashlynn." he said matter of factly without turning.

A woman came around the corner of his front door shaking in fear.

"W-what are you?" she said repeating the man's question.

"My name is Leo Masuyo. I was also known once as Jacob Keller. I was a Blood Dragon, I was a Mercenary," he turned to face the woman. His eyes glowing in the shadow of the jungle "I'm a monster...and right now I'm all you've got. Who was he and why was he after you?"

She was silent for a few moments. Leo waited patiently for her answer. He didn't move from his previous position over the cooling body, continuing to stare at her. Eventually, she spoke.

"Leopold's father...is not a nice man."

"Go on."

"He's a narcissist and I didn't want my son to follow in his footsteps. So I took him and ran. That man was one of his. It seems he sent him into the jungle to search for me. He probably already reported back where I am."

Leo remained quiet, running through everything she'd said. It seemed his earlier thoughts the night before had been correct. His past and present were colliding. It was time for him to get back out of the well.

"Do you have a plan for getting off Saigon?"

"Saigon?"

"This planet. Its name is Saigon. Do you have a plan for getting off it?"

"Call for rescue."

"...and if him and his men intercept it? Then what?"

She looked down at the ground looking defeated.

"Stop that. Giving up will do nothing to help you or your son escape him. Here's what we do..."

Leo explained his plan to Ashlynn. As he did so, her face changed from fear, to concern, to horror, and then to acceptance.

"It's going to be tight. The timing must be perfection. We have one shot at this. Do you understand?"

"Yes." she said, her eyes determined.

"Good. Let's get to work."

---

You fear oblivion. Yet you forget. The universe remembers every atom of your being. Even dust hums your name in the dark.
Roleplay is dead. Long live Powertraders and PvP I guess.