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Turn Wounds into Wisdom 3a/?
Date: 2014-08-27 10:14 am (UTC)He slowly picked it up and inspected it, but the chip had no dent or any trace of damage or blood. Vincent narrowed his eyes as he stared at it, trying to figure out the meaning of his find. Tara couldn’t possibly have just lost the chip, and she would never have willingly taken it off, but if someone had forced her, then why hadn’t they taken it? Had they been disturbed by Cobra, which then had caused him to be killed? That still didn’t explain why the chip was still here. Had Cobra tried to assault Tara, and she had killed him? Then why was she still hidden and not in the Fort to be treated? Had Cobra had accomplices?
Then he looked at the tracks again and shook his head. Closing his hand around the chip Vincent looked straight ahead for a while, into the direction where the footsteps vanished, and closed his eyes. The string was torn, so either someone else had taken it from her and dropped it here, not knowing what it was… or she had done it herself, so whatever her fate, the platinum chip wouldn’t share it. A dark foreboding began to arise in him.
The silence around him seemed to scream at him about his failure.
With drooping shoulders he made his way back to the Fort to find out if the people in the Fort had maybe learned anything new, either about Tara or about Cobra’s death.
“He was stabbed”, Arcade told Vincent. “Right in the chest. Must have been dead in seconds.”
Vincent nodded and stepped towards the stretcher where Cobra was lying, chest bared and drenched in dried and clotted blood. Something about the wound looked oddly familiar to Vincent; the ragged, triangular shape nudged something in his brain that belonged to the part of him he’d have rather forgotten. But there was no denying, he had seen this kind of wound before. Countless times, in fact, and his heart grew even colder and heavier when he hat to acknowledge the fact that he knew the exact cause of death of the man lying before him. And slowly, the pieces began to fall in place.
Cobra had been killed by a legion spear.
“I think I know what happened to Tara”, Vincent said softly, causing Arcade to raise his eyebrows at the sound of his voice.
“Uhm... yes?”
Vincent still didn’t look up, and his fingers curled around the chip in his hand until its edges cut into his palm. “Have you not seen such a wound before?”
Narrowing his eyes, Arcade took a step towards the stretcher and inspected Cobra’s chest again. He frowned, shook his head and sighed. “I have, although...” He looked at Vincent again and pushed his glasses up his nose. “Care to enlighten me?”
After another moment of silence, Vincent finally looked up. “That wound was caused by a throwing spear.”
“A throwing...” Arcade suddenly paled when the meaning of Vincent’s words hit him. “Dear god... are you sure? I mean... You can’t be sure of this... can you?”
“Just recall who I am and what my past contains, and ask yourself that question again.”
Arcade silently stared at him, then slowly shook his head. “The… the Legion? But... for heaven’s sake... what are we going to do now?”
“We? You will do nothing but keep this to yourself. No one must know, it will lead to unrest, if not panic. Any kind of news that the Legion is back could lead to the people here losing their heads with fear. No one must know of this, no one must know that Tara is gone. I will follow her and do what I can to get her back.”
“That’s going to be pretty dangerous. And what makes you so sure it really was the Legion and not someone else, just using a legion spear to lay a false track, or… maybe a few raiders?”
Turn Wounds into Wisdom 3b/?
Date: 2014-08-27 10:15 am (UTC)“Vincent...” Arcade cleared his throat. “I know that this is maybe a bit of a sore spot, but...”
“You want to know why she was out there in Outer Vegas alone?” Vincent held Arcade’s gaze levelly. “Because I was asleep. After coming back from the celebration, she said she needed a bath and told me not to wait up. Yet she never went to bed, and when I awoke in the morning, she was gone.”
“She probably needed a moment or two of breathing space, of peace.”
“I fail to see how my presence would have disturbed her peace.”
A small smile flitted over Arcade’s face for a second. “Maybe she just wanted to be alone with herself and her own thoughts for a while? It’s called privacy.”
Vincent’s gaze hardened for a second. “I know. But she is the leader of these people, their queen, and she can have all the privacy she needs within the Lucky38 if she just asks me. Such luxuries are not hers to...”
“Vincent, please. She’s only human, you know.”
Vincent didn’t reply, and Arcade sighed while shaking his head. After another moment of him looking at Vincent who silently stared at the tent wall, the doctor leaned forward to pull the sheet over Cobra’s body again.
“The events may not even be related, you know”, Arcade said thoughtfully. “Raiders or some wasteland punks with looted weapons could have killed Cobra and Tara might have…”
Vincent looked up sharply, and Arcade shrugged and looked away.
“Is there anything I could do to help you?”, he then asked.
“There is.” Vincent rolled his shoulders and looked at the doctor again. “But primarily I need a Legion attire as a disguise.”
“As disguise?” Arcade pushed his glasses up again. “They can’t have more than a few hours’ head start?”
“Have you ever tried to follow a trail of footsteps through a desert?” Vincent tilted his head. “The slightest breeze obscures any footprints in the dusty earth, and whatever trail they might have left is long gone by now. I have no way of knowing the way they took, but I have a founded hope of knowing where they will bring her.”
“And where would that be?”
Vincent shrugged. “The Legion had a camp, as a bridge head, in Kingman. I do not know if it still stands, and if so, if it is still manned. Maybe they will bring her to Flagstaff. Anyway, if I catch up with them on the road or find out where they will bring her, attacking will only result in getting me killed, and endangering her further.”
“I understand.” Arcade cast a thoughtful look at Cobra’s shrouded corpse. “But… alone?”
Vincent narrowed his eyes. “If you know of someone else intimately familiar with the Legion’s customs, discipline and language I am eager to know.”
Arcade opened his mouth, found he had nothing to reply and shook his head. “Sorry.”
Vincent nodded slowly ,and crossing his arms he then rested his eyes on the shrouded corpse once more, wondering yet again what the two of them had been doing outside the city walls. They might have accidentally run into each other, or he might have followed her upon noticing her walking the streets alone. He might have wanted to protect her, or he might have wanted to make a move on her. But since he was dead now, Vincent felt inclined to give him the benefit of doubt and assumed the former; any detail about this was impossible to find out before he hadn’t spoken to Tara herself anyway.
Jealousy was a feeling both unfamiliar and most uncomfortable for him. In all the months that he had been sharing Tara’s bed she had been happy and satisfied enough with what he had given her, but he was well aware of his shortcomings and couldn’t imagine that any woman, even a virgin who didn’t know exactly what was missing, would not at one point want to know a real man for a change. He couldn’t even hold it against her. He knew he should not let his feelings get the better of him to such an extent and was fully aware he was maybe doing Tara great wrong with thinking that, yet help it, he could not.
Turn Wounds into Wisdom 3c/?
Date: 2014-08-27 10:16 am (UTC)As he stood there watching the courtyard his concentration was broken, however, when he saw Julie Farkas enter, and with that, he felt another small sting of bitterness upon noticing the little bulge that her lab coat was no longer able to hide. His thoughts then involuntarily wandered back, back towards the grieving mother and her dead child, the child that might or might not have been his. With a shake of his head Vincent turned around again and cast a look at the corpse on the stretcher.
Well, all those worries lie behind you now, he thought. They should lie behind me, too, but for some reason I cannot let go of them. He rolled his shoulders again and realised he felt compelled to find out if Cobra had found himself a woman, and if that woman now would need maintenance. The Followers could probably help with that.
With another sigh he pushed all those futile, useless thoughts out of his mind and focussed on the task ahead. It was impossible to truly plan a mission like this, he would have to take each step carefully and deal with events as they came up, relying on his ability to think on his feet. But then he realised that he now had one big advantage: While he was able to perfectly impersonate a Legion soldier, he no longer had to adhere to the Legion’s rules and prohibitions. He could equip himself with all the stim packs and combat drugs he thought useful, and this could give him the edge he would need. He still might consider especially combat drugs dishonourable, but he would need all the help he could get. The success of his mission was more important than his personal pride or preferences.
Another immediate problem that needed dealing with was the safety of the platinum chip. If it had been sheer chance that it had fallen where Vincent had found it or if it had been Tara who had reacted quickly enough and made sure that it wouldn’t fall into the hands of the Legion he couldn’t know, but it would be dangerously careless if he brought it along with him. It needed to be kept safe.
His hand closed once more around the chip in his pocket as he thought about it. The King would be an obvious choice; after Vincent’s admission about the pip boy he had installed stricter security measures on his premises and the safe was now kept in a guarded, windowless room in the basement. But on the other hand, the King might be too obvious a choice, so maybe someone else would be better, after all. Someone no one would ever associate with the platinum chip. Someone utterly honest and honourable and at the same time lacking the ambition and the imagination to abuse the power or even be tempted by it, but also someone intelligent enough to be fully aware of the responsibility and to be able to keep it well hidden.
“Well then”, Arcade suddenly said behind him. “I guess we are finished here, and being as I have other patients I can actually help…”
“Of course.” Without looking back at the silent corpse behind him and with a thoughtful frown on his face Vincent followed the doctor out of the tent.
Turn Wounds into Wisdom 3d/?
Date: 2014-08-27 10:18 am (UTC)“Yes?”, Arcade finally asked.
“I was wondering about how good you are at keeping a secret.”
Arcade gave him a thin smile. “I know I tend to ramble a lot, and yes, I have been known to blab about my personal affairs, but in general... I mean, I’m a doctor, and keeping things to myself is part of my job.”
Vincent was still measuring him up, but after another moment of silence, he nodded. “Very well. Because I need someone trustworthy, honourable, honest and intelligent to keep something safe while I am away.”
Arcade blinked a few times, then he took a deep breath while narrowing his brow. “What... exactly are we talking about?”
Vincent reached into his pocket and held out his hand, fist still closed. After a moment’s hesitation, and with his face locked in an expression of deep suspicion, Arcade held out his hand. Without taking his eyes of Arcade’s face, Vincent dropped the platinum chip into Arcade’s open palm.
Arcade slowly lowered his eyes to his hand and swallowed. “Where...”
“I found it close to the spot where Cobra died.”
The heavy silence was punctuated by a barking dog somewhere in the distance.
Arcade closed his trembling fingers around the chip. “I’m not sure I feel qualified.”
“I am sure you are.”
“You mentioned as much.” Arcade looked up at Vincent again. “But this... if I’m being honest, this thing terrifies me by its sheer presence.”
“There is no need to be terrified.” Vincent crossed his arms. “But a certain respect is surely in order. Just bear in mind that the best measure of safety you have is secrecy. I would not like to give this to one of the Families, and the King is too obvious a choice. So I give it to the Followers, because I am sure that is what Tara would have wanted. If I fail, and we do not return, you, that is, you and the Followers, will be able to act in her stead and find a worthy successor.”
Arcade swallowed, but with a slow nod, closed his fingers around the chip. “I understand.” He drew a deep breath, and then took the chip and slipped it around his neck, making sure it was well hidden under his clothes. When he looked at Vincent again, the latter gave him a nod.
“If anyone wonders what I have been doing alone here with you, you tell them I was here to inform you about an illness that has befallen the courier, a serious illness that binds her to the bed. Come into the Lucky38 in a bit, and make sure to bring medical equipment with you. As long as you don’t breathe a word about the chip, everything should be all right.”
Arcade simply nodded again. “And now?”
“Now I will prepare myself and hope that no one realises what happened in the small hours of last night. And although haste is required, I do have some planning to do.”
Arcade nodded again and watched Vincent head for the gates towards the Strip. When he had vanished through the gate the doctor slowly walked over to his office and sank down into a chair. He stared at the wall for a moment longer and, with a violent shudder, silently buried his face in his hands.
x-x-x-x-x-x
Re: Turn Wounds into Wisdom 3d/?
Date: 2014-08-27 11:04 am (UTC)And poor Arcade. I know he must hate having that kind of responsibility thrust upon him, especially when he can't even share the load with anybody.
It's good's getting even better! Can't wait for the next update.
~BA!Anon
Re: Turn Wounds into Wisdom 3d/?
Date: 2014-08-27 03:47 pm (UTC)I loved the first fic so much, and I'm so happy that wasn't the last of Tara and Vincent. I am also very worried for her. I'm really invested in this pairing lol. And Arcade! You can do it bro!
Re: Turn Wounds into Wisdom 3d/?
Date: 2014-08-28 06:15 pm (UTC)