Family discussion

BANG the muzzle flares and the bullet expels forth, Sel screams in a blind rage...Johnny Parx? He just went down from the one decisive and well aimed shot. Sel watches as red mist and gore splatter from his old mentors throat and he wobbles. In a rage he runs and tackles him, placing the pistol loaded with the armor piercing .45 caliber rounds to the mans forehead. The demons inside calling for an execution, there could be only one monster of this magnitude in Midian City. He was a force of rage, anguish, and evil. He had done the impossible, it had cost him billions of credits in resources but the immovable wall had toppled. He squeezes the trigger...

 

 

It had been months leading up to Sel's breaking point, over time, things evolving him to be where he was now. It started when he left Blackstar, not bearing to see Jenna and Parx walked on by recruits without respect for those that had earned their place, he had then joined the MPD by the request of Roaman Enzo, whom he shortly thereafter saw demoted, another of his family he thought was not getting what they deserved. He was seeing a pattern form over time, with those around him, betrayal running rampant in the city. It started turning him cold, he began over time drifting away from the MPD, growing less and less concerned with the affairs involving the welfare of its citizens, and more focused in his business. He had made a place for himself among the worst of Midian, and eventually the city began to swallow his soul. So here he was now, how did it get here?

 

Earlier that night... He looks down at Raphsody, the embers of the fire playing into the kitchen across his dark features and her small bandaged form. He seduces her, convinces her that Parx was never truly there, and he was always the one who watched over her. She was vulnerable still, mold-able. He moved on her, filling their lips with one another. She responds like he wanted, he gives her more drugs...Vikoden to numb the pain of post rape sex and make her mind fuzzy enough to accept whatever truth he doled out to her, once they arrive in the bedroom, he doles out sweet nothings, charm, and what sexual prowess he can use without killing her already destroyed body.

 

He sates himself and her using her body as his plaything, and no sooner than he milks the last of his cock into her body, his phone rings, he smiles at the number...Parx...comes across the ID. He tells Sel he is coming back into Midian from business and he knows the phones wont work, was hoping to catch him at home. Sel looks down at Raphs. “Why don't you come by for drinks brother....” but the tone is cold. Parx agrees its a great idea. Sel pulls open the bedside drawer for the ring he had made for another time and place. An exact replica of the one Parx had designed for him and Raphs, Sel had loved that ring, and wanted to give one to someone else one day. Today was that day. He loads his pistol, and puts a silencer on it, gods downstairs with an armful of hazed out Raphs, a pistol full of ammo, and a heart full of contempt. He waits, holding Raphsody in his arms, he places the pistol under the pillow next to him. Instructs his security to stay close, that the man will be emotionally unstable when he arrives, likely reckless, and dangerous, he doesn't tell them how dangerous.

 

Parx arrives, he is escorted in by security, the first image Sel has him see is himself, with Raphsody wrapped in his arms, the way Parx used to hold her...the way he still wanted to. Parx, was not happy, and he knew what was coming. Every person he had personally trained in the past had turned on him, but not like this, not to the level Sel was doing, the man was nearly physically indestructible, but emotionally, he was a cripple, and Sel knew that, and that's where he chose to plant his dagger and twist.

 

He explained to Parx that he was out of the picture, that he and Raphsody were to be married, showed him the ring, asked him to be the best man, but he made it obvious he was doing it to hurt him, not for any love of Raphsody. He kisses her in front of him as Parx threatens him... the pistol slides free of it hiding place during the kiss and is placed at the back of Raphsody head as a warning...if you try it, she dies. But he informs him that he would send him a wedding gift instead, the honeymoon sheets after he was done fucking her senseless. Parx lost it, he kills a guard that tries to escort him out, shoves Semtex in his mouth with a lead wire “your move” he says to Sel, Parx calls Sel out and with a heart full of loathing and a raging desire for self destruction he was happy to call his bluff. Sel gathers Raphsody, walks up, and uses the barrel of the gun to snap the pin free. “Checkmate.” he tells him and then bolts to jump over the kitchen counter, with Parx dead on his heels.

 

They struggle, both trying to gain control of the weapon, the deafening blast stealing their hearing, Sel screams the command for the arc hunters to attack. Shortly after they open fire raining the .50 caliber barrage across Parx frame. Parx wraps Raphsody up in his arms to protect her from the new found rain of death, Sel scrambles to find a place to take cover, he watches as Parx takes down two arc hunters with his own ammo he provided him, pulls out his phone to signal the warehouse to release the war mechs. The big guns. As they approach, Parx focuses his vision to them, targeting their sensory parts, causing them to spin and fire on one another, the Tactic Sel told him to use once upon a time if he even had to go on some special op to take them down. Sel took the opportunity, he rose, and focused, all his training, all his knowledge..placed in one shot, Parx had used his ammo against him, Sel would use the training Parx instilled now and the anger and rage, the coldness and evil the gifts that Midian had bestowed him....the bullet leaves the chamber, BLAM, Johnny Parx is down. Sel is screaming. So here we are... Sel squeezes the trigger...

 

Everything around him that was once his home, was in shambles, burning and destroyed, brought on by his own desire for destruction, he was on the road to self damnation, and he was going as fast as he possibly could. He screams for Parx to admit that he would have betrayed him like so many others had, to justify him in taking his life before he did it, to give him the reason he wants to pull the trigger, the demons swirl in his eyes, Parx sees them, all to familiar, all to knowing, they dance. The demons inside Parx and inside Sel, The dance of two warriors, Beautiful...Dangerous...Deadly.

 

The one quality Parx retained above all else shows past, his loyalty as he reaches to his forehead to grab the gun, and puts it in his own mouth....the message? I would die, before I ever betrayed you, my friend, my brother, my son. Sel's demons scream, they can't take it, he presses the gun further into his mouth, finger quivers on the trigger, can't pull it. It all becomes clear...one moment of clarity, He can die in peace now, without the burden of his demons, he gives the gun to Parx...tells him to do it, tells him, he can die now peacefully, but be quick. He gives him a couple of messages to the ones he used to call his loved ones, tell them he is sorry, give Chloe the run of the operation once he is gone, or just liquidate it and give her the cash.

 

Sel places the pistol in Parx hands. “Take it easy Parx.” his final words...he places the mans hand, and the gun, to his own head, staring down the barrel of his own pistol, custom bore, modded clip...death in a small package. He closes his eyes, no fear...he longs for release, the muzzle flares, BANG....

 

he hears a rapid succession of the sound that brought him death echo in his ears , hears the sizzle of something burning, smells the undeniable smell of charred flesh...he must have arrived in that special place in hell reserved for men like him, he fells no pain, save that left hand that Parx crushed earlier while they were wrestling for the gun.

 

He open his eyes, expecting hellfire and brimstone, and to have to make war on the devil himself to lay claim to his rightful place, but instead, hell looks just like the life he left behind, ironic. However, if he was in hell, Parx and Raphsody must have made it with him. He looked down at the bleeding form as he heard him toss aside the pistol, he had spent the rounds, and used the hot barrel to seal the wound Sel had planted in his throat. And he looked like he was fading, Sel gathered him and bolted for the warehouse, he couldn't let him die, not like this. He sprinted with the big man, through the debris, fires and smoke, to his warehouse where his medical equipment was unable to help him, ..a least there was a truck there, he stopped only long enough to gather Raphsody, and was gone as fast as the truck would go. The Blackstar base had to have the supplies he needed, they were used to patching him up. They would let him through the gate, or shoot him, at this point, he didn't care.

 

He was lucky Parx was awake enough to motion for them to stand down. Sel ushered him inside, it was to familiar here, how he navigated the rooms, he walked with authority. Confidence instilled in him inside this place, to familiar...uncomfortable. He placed Parx on the bed, the man so stubborn he had to find a way to talk. He pulled out the PDA, he knew Sel was not out of the woods, even in his state, after all the damage Sel had done...the PDA had a text written out, “Key is under the mat, gear in the closet, talk with you soon Son.”

 

Sel could say nothing, he had no place to go until he had a new place, what else was he going to do? He nodded and went to Parx home after dropping off Raphsody and making sure she would be okay, rest would be a far cry from him, he would be up until the wee hours of the morning, finally finding his way to the closet, and the duffel that had the gear Parx was talking about. He slowly unzipped the bag. Inside was an old senior operators badge, a bit covered in dust, he wasn't sure why Parx sent him to this bag, he pulled out the uniform inside...the name and rank embroidered on it.

 

Senior Operator Perian Blackstar Military Services

 

 

Selarin Perian held the uniform to his face and curled into the bag, he could do little more than weep.

Done