BK-201 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
contract_star) wrote2009-02-10 02:45 am
contract_star) wrote2009-02-10 02:45 am
Entry tags:
Goodbye, Apathy
Author: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quirkypeanutblu
Character/Fandom: Hei/Darker than BLACK
Prompt: 059: trail
Word Count: 2,512
Summary: Hei tries to set up an Underground Railroad for Contractors fleeing the Syndicate.
Author Notes/Warnings: End of series SPOILERS. Weird one, this one. It feels a bit disconnected, but I rather like it. Nothing too bad (not even violence!) just some language and the occasional moment of existentialism.
It wasn’t about war, for now--that would come later, if it came at all. It had taken Hei a few days to convince Azure and Verde that what they needed more than anything right now was safety. The Contractors weren’t going to get that if they stayed where they were, stayed under the Syndicate’s heel. They needed help. They needed some kind of road out and away from the Syndicate, away from their handlers.
“Like a pathway to freedom,” Azure said, sarcasm dripping from the words. The four of them--Hei, Yin, Azure and Verde--were seated around the table in Hei’s kitchen. There weren’t enough chairs, so Azure and Hei were sitting on overturned boxes. It was night, and snow was trickling lazily from an inky sky outside.
Hei raised an eyebrow. “Exactly, though probably in less romantic terms.”
“It’s like in Mexico,” Verde said thoughtfully. “People want to go to America, but they can’t do it on their own. So they pay a coyote, or they get help--find people who can take them from one place to another, shelter them for a night.”
Azure nodded a little. “Same thing in America, with the slaves. Getting people north. To freedom, literally.”
“It’ll be a pathway.” Hei traced a line along a map of Japan, which was unfolded on the table in front of them. “The two of you relied on people, safehouses to get here to Sapporo. The average Contractor won’t be able to do that. The second they abandon the Syndicate, they lose all their contacts, all their safe havens. We need some kind of permanent or semi-permanent route.” He shook his head. “For now we’ll have to focus on Tokyo, since there are still a lot of Contractors there, and the Syndicate has a good foothold. We find allies situated at strategic points, have them in charge of safehouses along the route. Get Contractors as far from Tokyo as possible, hide them in big cities where they won’t be found.”
“How do we go about finding allies, exactly? Call up some Contractors, say ‘hey, wanna help some guys escape your boss?’”
“There’s a money issue as well,” Verde pointed out quietly.
Hei rubbed the back of his head. “We’ll have to figure those out. But this is the first step. Without something like this, the majority of Contractors who try to leave will be killed within a day.”
Silence fell over the room. Azure frowned and picked at a torn corner of the map. Beneath the table, a bell jingled as Mao shifted in his sleep.
“We might be able to get the people who helped us before,” Azure said slowly. “They were all escapees too. Or exiles, I dunno what you wanna call them. I can get you a list and some contact info. They might cooperate if it’s me.”
Hei smiled. “Good; that should help. We’ve got to start somewhere.”
-------
Hei only stayed in Akita long enough to know the general layout. After getting off at what he hoped was the closest train station, he was now wandering a residential district, looking from the piece of paper in his hand to the street numbers. He was alone; Yin wanted to come, but they all agreed that she would be too conspicuous. If this is a trap, it’s best to have allies waiting in the wings to come help, rather than everyone to get caught at once.
He came to a stop at a street corner and looked up at the sky; the clouds were thick and gray, promising more snow later.
How the hell did this happen?
Since when did he act with other people’s interests in mind? Since when did he care enough about Contractors to really want to help them? A year ago he never would have even considered leaving the Syndicate, never mind trying to help others do the same. And he could barely even begin to think about what he had decided, really decided. A war. A war, if only by name. He had declared war on the Syndicate, the very people who had shaped, crafted and controlled him for the past ten years of his life.
He shook his head, smiling a little to himself. The Plane had changed him, in ways he couldn’t possibly explain.
Whatever this becomes, this won’t be the EPR again, he thought as he continued walking. I won’t let that happen. We can’t let civilians get involved, can’t kill people randomly. We need...coexistence. We can’t have that if we go into Tokyo guns blazing.
Tokyo had been through enough. The world had been through enough these past few years; more open fighting was not what anyone needed.
Hei finally came to a stop and blinked up at an old, gray townhouse. He looked from the number to the address he had written down and back, confirming it. It was broad daylight, and Azure said she trusted the man who lived here.
None of that had stopped Hei from bringing his knives and wires.
He looked up and down the street, trying to spot any tails or watchers, then walked up the steps and rung the bell.
A few moments later, a Japanese man in his thirties answered the door, his expression serious. He stared at Hei for a half-second, then put on a faint smile.
“Electrician?”
“That’s right,” Hei said cheerily. “Here about your cable pathways, right?”
The man stared at him, his expression returning to blankness.
“You’re late.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know the area.”
The Japanese man looked around surreptitiously. It occurred to Hei that he was probably suspecting a trap just as much as Hei was.
“Come inside,” he said, waving at Hei to come in. Hei followed him indoors, slipping out of his shoes. The townhouse was nice, a rather interesting blend of traditional Japanese and Western style; the interior was sparsely decorated. Hei saw no evidence of a wife or children.
The man led him to the kitchen, where tea was already brewing on a table. He took a seat and motioned for Hei to do the same, then poured two cups of tea.
“Azure trusts you,” the man commented in an off-handed sort of way, which wasn’t off-handed at all.
“She trusts you, as well,” Hei said, accepting his tea but not drinking it. It would be stupid to poison him in this situation, but you could never be too careful.
“You’re really BK-201,” the man said, staring at Hei as if trying to read his mind. “The Black Reaper.”
Hei wasn’t sure what he thought of that title. Was he really still the Black Reaper?
“I’m willing to prove it, if you want. I came here on good faith, and I’m your guest.” Hei hated the way that sounded. He didn’t think he would ever get used to this diplomacy thing.
The man stared at him awhile and then sighed and sipped his tea. Hei waited until he’d drank to sip his own.
“No need. Azure trusts very few people, fewer than most of our kind. And if you really did what they say you did...”
Hei remained silent. He wasn’t sure what he thought of all of this, either; the rumors, the idea that he was a hero, a savior. It would be good to let people think what they wanted for now, but in the long run it could cause problems.
Hei knew he wasn’t a hero. That would be enough for now.
“No doubt you know my name by now, but my name is Kuro. VT-452,” the man said. “In this neighborhood I am known as Yuki Sato. I left the Syndicate one year ago.”
Kuro. Hei couldn’t help but notice the irony.
“Azure told me some details,” said Kuro, meeting Hei’s blank gaze. “You want to set up a network. A means of getting Contractors out of the Syndicate and to a safe haven.” His eyes hardened a little. “But I have a question for you, 201-san. What do you intend to do with these freed Contractors? Are we tools merely switching hands?”
“I intend to have those Contractors who want to be free, be free. They won’t owe me any allegiance of favors. If they want to help, it will be their choice.”
Kuro’s eyes narrowed. “Acting without any thought of personal gain. You are either a very shrewd Contractor, or a very illogical one.”
Hei smirked. “I’m different from most Contractors.”
Kuro stared at him a moment and then smirked back. Some of the tension lifted.
“On that topic, what exactly do I get out of helping you?”
This was the part that really mattered. Hei took another sip of tea. “It might be difficult, but try not to think of it in terms of what you as an individual will gain; think of it as what you as a Contractor will gain. The sunspot cycle is over, but in five years there will be another one. Whether or not the Syndicate tries again depends on how powerful they are when the time comes…and on whether or not they still exist.”
Kuro’s eyes widened a fraction, but Hei could tell that he was all but dumbstruck.
“This is bigger than just a network or a trail out of the woods; you’re talking about a war.”
Hei shook his head. “I’m talking about bringing down the Syndicate, yes, but it’s more than that. The humans need to know about us. It’ll be decades, maybe centuries before we can actually coexist together, but it needs to happen, and we need to be the ones to start it. Contractors wouldn’t have to hide anymore; they wouldn’t have to take orders or be nothing more than weapons and tools. This network is about freedom, but it’s not true freedom. It’s only one step.”
“And you intend to go the route of the EPR? Become terrorists?” Kuro’s voice was impassive; it was impossible to tell whether he approved or disapproved of the idea.
“No. We’ll fight if we have to, but no more terror. No more random bombings and attacks.” Hei sighed and drained his cup of tea. “In any case, all of that is far in the future. Right now I’m just concerned with spiriting away a few Contractors.”
Kuro was silent for a long time, staring at Hei from across the table. Hei met his gaze unwaveringly.
Finally there was a subtle shift, as if the air had changed. Kuro leaned back in his chair.
“What do you want me to do?”
-------
Two other Contractors appeared in Sapporo over the course of the next week. Both of them had known Azure and Verde in the Syndicate before and had followed their lead, in one way or another. The first arrival was an angry-looking redhead, a former member of the IRA, or so he claimed. He went by the handle “Fox,” and despite his appearance was wary and soft-spoken.
“He’s good people,” Azure had said when she introduced him to Hei. “In on the cause and all. He’s the one who got us out initially. Didn’t think he’d have the balls to follow.”
Fox had muttered something incoherent in response. For all intents and purposes, he seemed intensely devoted to bringing down the Syndicate, though Hei couldn’t get a straight answer as to why out of him. The anger with which he spoke of them--uncharacteristic of a Contractor--was proof enough of his willingness to help.
Hei had spent the better part of that week getting in contacts with the other Contractors on Azure’s list, feeling them out and figuring out whether they fit into the network, or whatever it was.
“It’s going to need a name at some point,” Verde had pointed out.
“Something classy. And more creative than what the Syndicate comes up with,” Azure had agreed, her voice bland.
Kuro had been a major help. He had been out of the Syndicate for a year, and had established several out-of-Syndicate contacts—both Contractors and humans, some of which were more interested in the idea of a network than others. He had been working non-stop trying to set up relay points, safe houses, and a reliable mode of transportation between points on what was quickly becoming a constellation of escape routes and pathways.
It was Saturday when the second Contractor arrived. Hei had returned to his apartment to find Azure and Verde standing outside with a young Vietnamese girl, with whom Verde was talking.
“New blood,” Azure said by way of explanation. “Wasn’t on our team, but we worked with her, especially Verde. This is the girl who gave me the info about what the Syndicate was planning for her.” She rested a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Meet Bindy.”
Hei stared at the girl. She couldn’t be more than twelve. “Bindy.”
“It’s short for Binturong,” Verde explained, in a voice that said she had explained this many, many times.
“Don’t ask,” Azure said, rolling her eyes.
Bindy smirked coquettishly at Hei. “Chose it myself. I have a thing for strange animals, left over from my human days, I suppose.” She looked him up and down. “There’s no way you’re him. The Reaper is supposed to be six feet tall.”
“I wear large boots,” Hei said, already deciding that he wasn’t going to like this girl.
“You really trust this guy, Verde?” Bindy said with a careless look at Verde.
“I do.”
“What a joke. This guy saved the world, my ass.”
Hei did not have the patience for this right now. “I could care less whether you believe it or not. Though you might want to tone down the brattiness. It’s hardly befitting of a Contractor, child or not.”
Bindy stared at Hei for a moment and then smiled, sweetly and slowly. “You know what I saw at the zoo last month? This little, tiny fox, a fennec fox, I think. Adorable little things. And I do always like to expand my repertoire...”
Several embarrassing hours later for Hei, and a frantic half hour later for the women, Bindy begrudgingly changed Hei back into a human, looking rather disheveled and, to some degree, genuinely apologetic. Azure and Verde had no doubt threatened her with bodily harm when Hei had simply disappeared.
“She does that to everyone who slights her,” Verde said in a long-suffering way, once they had calmed Hei down to the point that he no longer wanted to strangle the girl.
“Trigger-happy, this one. Craziest Contractor I’ve ever known,” Azure said, shooting a glare at Bindy.
Bindy rubbed her nose and sniffed. “It was worth it, if only for those ears.”
-------
A few days later, Hei got a call from Kuro.
“The network is up and running,” Kuro said briskly, speaking with the air of a longtime businessman. “We have confirmed connections in Sapporo, Naha, Akita, and Nara.”
Then he hung up.
Hei stared at the mobile in his hand for quite awhile afterward. It was happening; it was really happening.
And it was only the beginning.
quirkypeanutbluCharacter/Fandom: Hei/Darker than BLACK
Prompt: 059: trail
Word Count: 2,512
Summary: Hei tries to set up an Underground Railroad for Contractors fleeing the Syndicate.
Author Notes/Warnings: End of series SPOILERS. Weird one, this one. It feels a bit disconnected, but I rather like it. Nothing too bad (not even violence!) just some language and the occasional moment of existentialism.
It wasn’t about war, for now--that would come later, if it came at all. It had taken Hei a few days to convince Azure and Verde that what they needed more than anything right now was safety. The Contractors weren’t going to get that if they stayed where they were, stayed under the Syndicate’s heel. They needed help. They needed some kind of road out and away from the Syndicate, away from their handlers.
“Like a pathway to freedom,” Azure said, sarcasm dripping from the words. The four of them--Hei, Yin, Azure and Verde--were seated around the table in Hei’s kitchen. There weren’t enough chairs, so Azure and Hei were sitting on overturned boxes. It was night, and snow was trickling lazily from an inky sky outside.
Hei raised an eyebrow. “Exactly, though probably in less romantic terms.”
“It’s like in Mexico,” Verde said thoughtfully. “People want to go to America, but they can’t do it on their own. So they pay a coyote, or they get help--find people who can take them from one place to another, shelter them for a night.”
Azure nodded a little. “Same thing in America, with the slaves. Getting people north. To freedom, literally.”
“It’ll be a pathway.” Hei traced a line along a map of Japan, which was unfolded on the table in front of them. “The two of you relied on people, safehouses to get here to Sapporo. The average Contractor won’t be able to do that. The second they abandon the Syndicate, they lose all their contacts, all their safe havens. We need some kind of permanent or semi-permanent route.” He shook his head. “For now we’ll have to focus on Tokyo, since there are still a lot of Contractors there, and the Syndicate has a good foothold. We find allies situated at strategic points, have them in charge of safehouses along the route. Get Contractors as far from Tokyo as possible, hide them in big cities where they won’t be found.”
“How do we go about finding allies, exactly? Call up some Contractors, say ‘hey, wanna help some guys escape your boss?’”
“There’s a money issue as well,” Verde pointed out quietly.
Hei rubbed the back of his head. “We’ll have to figure those out. But this is the first step. Without something like this, the majority of Contractors who try to leave will be killed within a day.”
Silence fell over the room. Azure frowned and picked at a torn corner of the map. Beneath the table, a bell jingled as Mao shifted in his sleep.
“We might be able to get the people who helped us before,” Azure said slowly. “They were all escapees too. Or exiles, I dunno what you wanna call them. I can get you a list and some contact info. They might cooperate if it’s me.”
Hei smiled. “Good; that should help. We’ve got to start somewhere.”
-------
Hei only stayed in Akita long enough to know the general layout. After getting off at what he hoped was the closest train station, he was now wandering a residential district, looking from the piece of paper in his hand to the street numbers. He was alone; Yin wanted to come, but they all agreed that she would be too conspicuous. If this is a trap, it’s best to have allies waiting in the wings to come help, rather than everyone to get caught at once.
He came to a stop at a street corner and looked up at the sky; the clouds were thick and gray, promising more snow later.
How the hell did this happen?
Since when did he act with other people’s interests in mind? Since when did he care enough about Contractors to really want to help them? A year ago he never would have even considered leaving the Syndicate, never mind trying to help others do the same. And he could barely even begin to think about what he had decided, really decided. A war. A war, if only by name. He had declared war on the Syndicate, the very people who had shaped, crafted and controlled him for the past ten years of his life.
He shook his head, smiling a little to himself. The Plane had changed him, in ways he couldn’t possibly explain.
Whatever this becomes, this won’t be the EPR again, he thought as he continued walking. I won’t let that happen. We can’t let civilians get involved, can’t kill people randomly. We need...coexistence. We can’t have that if we go into Tokyo guns blazing.
Tokyo had been through enough. The world had been through enough these past few years; more open fighting was not what anyone needed.
Hei finally came to a stop and blinked up at an old, gray townhouse. He looked from the number to the address he had written down and back, confirming it. It was broad daylight, and Azure said she trusted the man who lived here.
None of that had stopped Hei from bringing his knives and wires.
He looked up and down the street, trying to spot any tails or watchers, then walked up the steps and rung the bell.
A few moments later, a Japanese man in his thirties answered the door, his expression serious. He stared at Hei for a half-second, then put on a faint smile.
“Electrician?”
“That’s right,” Hei said cheerily. “Here about your cable pathways, right?”
The man stared at him, his expression returning to blankness.
“You’re late.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know the area.”
The Japanese man looked around surreptitiously. It occurred to Hei that he was probably suspecting a trap just as much as Hei was.
“Come inside,” he said, waving at Hei to come in. Hei followed him indoors, slipping out of his shoes. The townhouse was nice, a rather interesting blend of traditional Japanese and Western style; the interior was sparsely decorated. Hei saw no evidence of a wife or children.
The man led him to the kitchen, where tea was already brewing on a table. He took a seat and motioned for Hei to do the same, then poured two cups of tea.
“Azure trusts you,” the man commented in an off-handed sort of way, which wasn’t off-handed at all.
“She trusts you, as well,” Hei said, accepting his tea but not drinking it. It would be stupid to poison him in this situation, but you could never be too careful.
“You’re really BK-201,” the man said, staring at Hei as if trying to read his mind. “The Black Reaper.”
Hei wasn’t sure what he thought of that title. Was he really still the Black Reaper?
“I’m willing to prove it, if you want. I came here on good faith, and I’m your guest.” Hei hated the way that sounded. He didn’t think he would ever get used to this diplomacy thing.
The man stared at him awhile and then sighed and sipped his tea. Hei waited until he’d drank to sip his own.
“No need. Azure trusts very few people, fewer than most of our kind. And if you really did what they say you did...”
Hei remained silent. He wasn’t sure what he thought of all of this, either; the rumors, the idea that he was a hero, a savior. It would be good to let people think what they wanted for now, but in the long run it could cause problems.
Hei knew he wasn’t a hero. That would be enough for now.
“No doubt you know my name by now, but my name is Kuro. VT-452,” the man said. “In this neighborhood I am known as Yuki Sato. I left the Syndicate one year ago.”
Kuro. Hei couldn’t help but notice the irony.
“Azure told me some details,” said Kuro, meeting Hei’s blank gaze. “You want to set up a network. A means of getting Contractors out of the Syndicate and to a safe haven.” His eyes hardened a little. “But I have a question for you, 201-san. What do you intend to do with these freed Contractors? Are we tools merely switching hands?”
“I intend to have those Contractors who want to be free, be free. They won’t owe me any allegiance of favors. If they want to help, it will be their choice.”
Kuro’s eyes narrowed. “Acting without any thought of personal gain. You are either a very shrewd Contractor, or a very illogical one.”
Hei smirked. “I’m different from most Contractors.”
Kuro stared at him a moment and then smirked back. Some of the tension lifted.
“On that topic, what exactly do I get out of helping you?”
This was the part that really mattered. Hei took another sip of tea. “It might be difficult, but try not to think of it in terms of what you as an individual will gain; think of it as what you as a Contractor will gain. The sunspot cycle is over, but in five years there will be another one. Whether or not the Syndicate tries again depends on how powerful they are when the time comes…and on whether or not they still exist.”
Kuro’s eyes widened a fraction, but Hei could tell that he was all but dumbstruck.
“This is bigger than just a network or a trail out of the woods; you’re talking about a war.”
Hei shook his head. “I’m talking about bringing down the Syndicate, yes, but it’s more than that. The humans need to know about us. It’ll be decades, maybe centuries before we can actually coexist together, but it needs to happen, and we need to be the ones to start it. Contractors wouldn’t have to hide anymore; they wouldn’t have to take orders or be nothing more than weapons and tools. This network is about freedom, but it’s not true freedom. It’s only one step.”
“And you intend to go the route of the EPR? Become terrorists?” Kuro’s voice was impassive; it was impossible to tell whether he approved or disapproved of the idea.
“No. We’ll fight if we have to, but no more terror. No more random bombings and attacks.” Hei sighed and drained his cup of tea. “In any case, all of that is far in the future. Right now I’m just concerned with spiriting away a few Contractors.”
Kuro was silent for a long time, staring at Hei from across the table. Hei met his gaze unwaveringly.
Finally there was a subtle shift, as if the air had changed. Kuro leaned back in his chair.
“What do you want me to do?”
-------
Two other Contractors appeared in Sapporo over the course of the next week. Both of them had known Azure and Verde in the Syndicate before and had followed their lead, in one way or another. The first arrival was an angry-looking redhead, a former member of the IRA, or so he claimed. He went by the handle “Fox,” and despite his appearance was wary and soft-spoken.
“He’s good people,” Azure had said when she introduced him to Hei. “In on the cause and all. He’s the one who got us out initially. Didn’t think he’d have the balls to follow.”
Fox had muttered something incoherent in response. For all intents and purposes, he seemed intensely devoted to bringing down the Syndicate, though Hei couldn’t get a straight answer as to why out of him. The anger with which he spoke of them--uncharacteristic of a Contractor--was proof enough of his willingness to help.
Hei had spent the better part of that week getting in contacts with the other Contractors on Azure’s list, feeling them out and figuring out whether they fit into the network, or whatever it was.
“It’s going to need a name at some point,” Verde had pointed out.
“Something classy. And more creative than what the Syndicate comes up with,” Azure had agreed, her voice bland.
Kuro had been a major help. He had been out of the Syndicate for a year, and had established several out-of-Syndicate contacts—both Contractors and humans, some of which were more interested in the idea of a network than others. He had been working non-stop trying to set up relay points, safe houses, and a reliable mode of transportation between points on what was quickly becoming a constellation of escape routes and pathways.
It was Saturday when the second Contractor arrived. Hei had returned to his apartment to find Azure and Verde standing outside with a young Vietnamese girl, with whom Verde was talking.
“New blood,” Azure said by way of explanation. “Wasn’t on our team, but we worked with her, especially Verde. This is the girl who gave me the info about what the Syndicate was planning for her.” She rested a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Meet Bindy.”
Hei stared at the girl. She couldn’t be more than twelve. “Bindy.”
“It’s short for Binturong,” Verde explained, in a voice that said she had explained this many, many times.
“Don’t ask,” Azure said, rolling her eyes.
Bindy smirked coquettishly at Hei. “Chose it myself. I have a thing for strange animals, left over from my human days, I suppose.” She looked him up and down. “There’s no way you’re him. The Reaper is supposed to be six feet tall.”
“I wear large boots,” Hei said, already deciding that he wasn’t going to like this girl.
“You really trust this guy, Verde?” Bindy said with a careless look at Verde.
“I do.”
“What a joke. This guy saved the world, my ass.”
Hei did not have the patience for this right now. “I could care less whether you believe it or not. Though you might want to tone down the brattiness. It’s hardly befitting of a Contractor, child or not.”
Bindy stared at Hei for a moment and then smiled, sweetly and slowly. “You know what I saw at the zoo last month? This little, tiny fox, a fennec fox, I think. Adorable little things. And I do always like to expand my repertoire...”
Several embarrassing hours later for Hei, and a frantic half hour later for the women, Bindy begrudgingly changed Hei back into a human, looking rather disheveled and, to some degree, genuinely apologetic. Azure and Verde had no doubt threatened her with bodily harm when Hei had simply disappeared.
“She does that to everyone who slights her,” Verde said in a long-suffering way, once they had calmed Hei down to the point that he no longer wanted to strangle the girl.
“Trigger-happy, this one. Craziest Contractor I’ve ever known,” Azure said, shooting a glare at Bindy.
Bindy rubbed her nose and sniffed. “It was worth it, if only for those ears.”
-------
A few days later, Hei got a call from Kuro.
“The network is up and running,” Kuro said briskly, speaking with the air of a longtime businessman. “We have confirmed connections in Sapporo, Naha, Akita, and Nara.”
Then he hung up.
Hei stared at the mobile in his hand for quite awhile afterward. It was happening; it was really happening.
And it was only the beginning.